M. Jeyapaul, J. - (1.) ACCUSED Sukhdev Singh was convicted for the offence under Section 489 -C of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter to be referred to "IPC") and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/ - and in default of payment of fine to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months He has challenged the judgment of conviction and the order of sentence dated 11.09.2001 passed by the learned Addl: Sessions Judge, Ludhiana.
(2.) IN brief the facts of the case of the prosecution is that PW -3 SI Harjinder Singh, the then SHO of the Police Station City Jagraon received secret information when he was engaged in connection with patrol duty that the accused named above had been in possession of counterfeit of British Pounds sterling's i,e, currency notes of United Kingdom and that he was making an attempt to pass off those currency notes as genuine while standing near the gate of Old Grain Market. On receipt of this information PW -3 SI Harjinder Singh proceeded towards Old Grain Market, Jagraon as indicated by his informer along with PW -1 HC Charanjit Singh and other police officials and found the accused sitting on a Scooter near the Gate of old Grain Market. Pw -3 Harjinder Singh having associated one independent witness namely Vijay Kumar conducted personal search of the accused and recovered the counterfeit of British Currency Notes from the left pocket of the shirt of the accused. There were totally 13 currency notes of the denomination of 20. Each of the five notes bore the same number. Immediately thereupon, he sent ruqa to the Police Station and on receipt of the same a formal first information report was registered against the accused.
(3.) AFTER the recovery of the alleged currency notes, the recovered articles as well as the accused were produced before the SHO of the Police Station. The currency notes were deposited with the Malkhana and the accused was sent to the lock up.;