Amar Saran, D.R.Azad - (1.) A prayer for bail to the appellant, Lakhan Lal, has been made before this Court in this criminal appeal against the judgment of the Addl. Sessions Judge/Court No. 1, Varanasi, dated 23.11.2006, convicting and sentencing the appellant and the co- accused Ram Sudhar Patel, Ravi Singh and Gopendra Dubey to imprisonment for life and fine of Rs. 50,000 under Section 396, I.P.C. ; 3 years' R.I. and fine under Section 201, I.P.C. ; 10 years' R.I. under Section 412, I.P.C. and 7 years' R.I. and fine under Section 408, I.P.C.
(2.) WE have heard Mr. Gopal Chaturvedi, learned counsel for the appellant-applicant, learned A.G.A., and Sri Rajul Bhargava, learned counsel for the complainant ; perused the judgment of the trial court and the written objections filed by the State. The F.I.R. was lodged by Dubri Yadav at 7.05 a.m. on 25.5.2003 at P.S. Chaubepur that in the morning when he had gone to ease himself in his village fields, he saw two dead bodies lying by the side of the road with their throats slit. Two guns were also lying near the dead bodies. The police officers of P.S. Chaubepur reached the spot and identified the dead bodies to be of Brijesh Rai and Lallu Yadav, who were working as guards in the Lords Distillery, Nand Ganj, Ghazipur. On the same day, a Tata Sumo vehicle was found abandoned on the Jamania-Ghazipur road. The applicant Lakhan Lal and Ram Sudhar Patel were arrested at the Maharajganj (Ghazipur Railways crossing), who confessed to the crime, and as some blood was seen on the small finger of Lakhan Lal's left hand a portion of his nail was cut and seized by the police. The applicant Lakhan Lal and Ram Sudhar Patel, then led the police to a culvert near the house of co-accused Ravi Singh and under the culvert they got Rs. 1,06,000 recovered which was contained in a black bag. The packets of notes contained red slips on which 'Jaunpur' was written in English, which, according to the accused, had been given by the distillery company. The remaining packets of notes contained white slips on which Lords Distillery, Nand Ganj, Ghazipur, was written in English with signatures. Lakhan Lal and Ram Sudhar Patel were medically examined on 24.5.2003 and on their persons some blunt object injuries were seen, which could have been 2 or 3 days' old. From the co-accused Ravi Singh and Gopendra Dubey, who were arrested on 6.6.2003 from Mumbai after their names came to light, Rs. 10,66,000 were got recovered, which they confessed before the officer to have looted in Varanasi in the highway within the jurisdiction of P.S. Chaubepur. The applicant Lakhan Lal was said to be cash collector in-charge of the Lords Distillery, Ram Sudhar Patel was the driver of the recovered Tata Sumo vehicle.
(3.) ACCORDING to the prosecution witnesses, the applicant Lakhan Lal and Ram Sudhar Patel had left with the two security guards of the Lords Distillery at about 10 a.m. on 19.5.2003 for cash collection. They collected substantial sums of money from the Jaunpur Depot, Faizabad Depot, Sultanpur Depot and Ambedkar Nagar by way of cash and bank drafts. Thus, they collected Rs. 23,58,000 in cash and Rs. 1,25,000 by way of bank drafts. Learned counsel for the appellant argued that it was not probable that the bag containing the cash would have been kept under a culvert and actually the money had been recovered from the applicant's house and has been falsely shown to have been recovered at his instance from under the culvert. The alleged recovery was hit by Section 27 of the Evidence Act because the confessional statement had been extracted by the police after using third degree measures against the appellant-applicant Lakhan Lal. The mere factum of recovery, was not only consistent with the appellant having murdered the two guards and having robbed him of the money, but it was also only consistent with the recovery of stolen property from the appellant-applicant, which only amounted to an offence under Section 412, I.P.C. Learned counsel for the complainant, on the other hand, contended that there was no explanation for the fact as to how the appellant had acquired the said money and there was nothing to doubt the recovery of Rs. 1,06,000 from under the culvert, which was near the house of another co-accused Ravi Singh, who was also one of the members of the group which committed this crime and from whom a substantial sum of money had been recovered by the police in Mumbai which was attested to by several witnesses. These notes also contained slips of the Lords Distillery. Further, the cut nail of the appellant, which had blood, was not satisfactorily explained by the appellant. The appellant was working as a cash collector at the Lords Distillery and he had falsely raised the plea that he had been falsely implicated in the case as he had resigned from his job at the Lords Distillery. It was wrong to state that there was no other evidence, except the evidence of recovery as the appellant-applicant Lakhan Lal and the co-accused Ram Sudhar and two deceased had left the distillery at 10 a.m. on 19.5.2003 and they were last seen at Jaunpur Collection Centre at 11.30 p.m. from where the appellants received Rs. 15,23,000 from the Depot in-charge Dhananjai Rai and the bodies of the two deceased were seen early in the morning of 20.5.2003 by the unconnected informant Dubri Yadav. In this view of the matter, it was argued that there was a clear evidence of the appellant and the deceased going together and being seen together even few hours before the body was found and thereafter the recovery of the sums of money at the instance of the applicant, and also the bloodstained cut nail. It was argued that it would be wrong to suggest that the applicant could only be liable for receiving stolen property under Section 412, I.P.C. and a clear offence under Section 396, I.P.C. would be disclosed. There was no explanation as to how the applicant was in possession of the substantial sum of money.;