- (1.) Criminal Appeal No. SB2461 of 2009 brought by Major Singh, S.I. and Criminal Appeal No. SB2463 of 2009 brought by Bhupinder Singh Khatra, DSP are directed against the judgment of their conviction dated 30.9.2009 passed by the court of learned Sessions Judge, Faridkot, vide which they have been held guilty for an offence punishable under sections 193, 201, 466, 471 read with Section 120-B IPC as well as the order on sentence dated 30.9.2009, vide which they have been sentenced for the aforesaid offence as under :- JUDGEMENT_795_TLP&H0_2012_1.html
(2.) The case brought against them by Police Station, City Faridkot had been registered by way of FIR No. 84 dated 18.6.2002 for an offence punishable under sections 192, 201, 420, 465, 466, 468, 471 and 120-B of Indian Penal Code and sections 7, 13(1)(d) and 12(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (for short, "the Act"). The case of the prosecution can be briefly noticed as under :- Smt. Pal Kaur daughter of Inder Singh, resident of village Dhudi was married with Amarjit Singh son of Geetan Singh of village Hariewala about 15 years ago. After one year of the marriage, her husband, Amarjit Singh went to America. He had been visiting India once in two or three years. According to her, in the month of June, 2001, Amarjit Singh came to India and demanded a sum of Rs. 5.00 lacs from her brother. It is at this time that she came to know about the second marriage of Amarjit Singh with Gurmeet Kaur alias Rani, who is niece of Kuldip Kaur wife of Atma Singh. Atma Singh is brother of Amarjit Singh. Amarjit Singh kept Gurmeet Kaur in America. When the complainant made a protest regarding his second marriage, Amarjit Singh turned her out of his house after serving her with beatings. Pal Kaur then lodged a report with Senior Superintendent of Police, Farikdot on the basis of which, FIR No. 57 dated 18.6.2011 under sections 148, 420, 498-A and 120-B read with section 149 IPC was registered against Amarjit Singh, Atma Singh, Gurmeet Kaur alias Rani and Kuldip Kaur. Amarjit Singh and Gurmeet Kaur were arrested in that case and were later on released on bail. During investigation of that case, the police took into possession the passports of Amarjit Singh and Gurmeet Kaur. A memo was prepared in this regard. Major Singh, SI, (one of the appellants before me) was posted as SHO, Police Station, Kotwali, Faridkot at that time. He tried to bring about a compromise between Pal Kaur and the accused but to no effect. Major Singh told Bhupinder Singh Khatra, DSP (the other appellant) in this regard. Bhupinder Singh, DSP summoned the file of the case from Police Station, Sadar, Faridkot and gave the passports of Amarjit Singh and Gurmeet Kaur to Major Singh SI, who further gave them to Amarjit Singh after taking bribe in a sum of Rs. 5.00 lacs. After receiving passports, Amarjit Singh and Gurmeet Kaur left for America and reaching there, they returned their passports back through Raj Kaur, mother of accused Amarjit Singh and thereafter accused Atma Singh returned the passports to Major Singh, SI and it is Major Singh, SI, who placed them on the police file.
(3.) On checking of the file, Rajbir Singh, ASI, the investigating officer of the case and Mukhtiar Singh, SI/SHO Police Station, Sadar, Faridkot came to know that two pages from each passport were missing.;