Criminal Appeal No134 of 1973
Appeal by special leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 13th November 1972 of the Rajasthan High Court in SP Criminal Appeal Nos 580 and 581 of 1972
BD Sharma for the Appellant
55 D Mookerjee and Dr BS Chauhan for Respondents 1 to 4
RK Garg AK Panda and Sunil Kumar Jain for Respondents 2 and 3
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHANDRACHUD CJ
The respondents were convicted by the learned Sessions Judge Bharatpur under section 395 of the Penal Code and were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years
By its judgement dated November 13 1972 the High Court of Rajasthan has set aside that judgment and has acquitted the respondents
The State of Rajasthan has filed this appeal by special leave against the judgment of the High Court
The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur had a branch at Bayana in the district of Bharatpur
At about 130 pm on March 17 1971 seven or eight persons looted the Bank
Jugal Kishore Paliwal the Agent of the Bank was working in his chamber while Bhagwan Dass Goyal Head Cashier and Suresh Chand Goyal Assistant Cashier were in the cash cabin at that time
The decoits who were armed with country made pistols knives and a hand grenade ordered these Bank employees to stand up and raise their hands
Three dacoits entered the Agent s room beat him up and opened the safe and the almirahs
They could not find any money therein
They then took the agent to the cash cabin where they tore open the lid of an iron cash box and took away currency notes of Rs 15253 from it
They snatched a black coloured confidential box lying on a nearby table threw away the papers which were in that box and put the money in it
They carried away the black box got into a blue Ambassador car and drove away
The first Information Report of the occurrence was lodged by the Head Cashier Bhagwan Dass Goyal within about half an hour ie at 200 pm at Police Station Bayana
The Police Officer there sent wireless messages to the surrounding police stations as also to police outposts
On receipt of the message the Head Constable in charge of the police station at Weir posted police personnel to block the car on the road
Soon thereafter an Ambassador car bearing No DLJ 7458 in which seven persons were seated arrived from the direction of Bayana
Driven in panic the car dashed against an oil barrel in front of a shop and was damaged
The occupants of the car were forced by that circumstance to come out of the car whereupon they were surrounded by the police and the members of the 56 public
The occupants fired from their pistols and tried to escape under cover of fire but the police and the public gave them a hot chase for over a mile and succeeded in surrounding them once again
The occupants of the car opened fire causing injuries to some members of the public
Ultimately they were over powered and caught
Babu Lal Station House Officer of the Bayana Police Station arrived on the scene and arrested the respondents
It transpired during the investigation that the Ambassador car which the respondents had used was stolen from New Delhi a day before the occurrence
The case of the prosecution is that the respondents before us were the very persons who looted the Bank escaped in the car and were chased and arrested
The respondents admitted that they were arrested near Weir but they denied that they had any hand in the loot of the Bank
Each of them furnished a different explanation as regards his presence at Weir at the time of their arrest
They also examined four witnesses to show principally the reason of their presence at the place of arrest
It would appear from the judgment of the learned Single Judge of the High Court of Rajasthan that three points were argued on behalf of the respondents 1 There is no evidence regarding the identification of the respondents 2 There is no trustworthy evidence regarding the recovery of the stolen property from their possession and 3 There is no evidence to show that they had escaped in the particular Ambassador car and had come out of the car after it met with an accident
On the question of identification of the respondents the High Court has rejected the evidence of the Agent of the Bank Jugal Kishore Paliwal PW 4 Head Clerk Radhey Charan Bhargava PW 5 Head Cashier Bhagwan Dass Goyal PW 6 Agricultural Asst
Murari Lal PW 7 Daftaries Radhey Shyam Sharma PW 8 and Amba Prasad PW 9 and Asst
Cashier Suresh Goyal PW 10 on the ground that though some of these witnesses had identified the dacoits in the jail they had failed to identify them before the trial court
It appears that these witnesses had wrongly identified some of the accused in the committing court as also before the trial Court
According to the High Court The only irresistible conclusion which can be drawn from their statements is that their evidence regarding identification is not convincing
 57 On the question of recovery of the stolen property from the possession of the respondents the case of the prosecution is that each of the respondents was carrying a bundle of hundred currency notes of Rs 10 each
It is further alleged that the black box lying in the Ambassador car was found to contain currency notes of the value of Rs 6800 belonging to the Bank
In addition live cartridges and knives are also alleged to have been recovered from the possession of some of the respondents
The High Court has rejected the whole of this evidence on the ground that the recovery memos cannot be said to be genuine and were prepared subsequently that the knives and live cartridges were not produced before the Court that the story that each of the respondents was carrying currency notes worth Rs 1000 while running away is unnatural and that it is not likely that the respondents would leave the sum of Rs 6800 in the black box in the car and would each carry a sum of Rs1000 as if to create evidence against themselves
On the third question regarding the allegation that the respondents has escaped in the Ambassador car and had come out of that car after it met with an accident the High Court has rejected the evidence that the respondents had fled away in the particular car on the ground that in the entry Exhibit D 40 in the General Diary of the Police Station relating to the First Information Report the number of the car was not mentioned
If two views of the evidence were reasonably possible we would not have substituted our own assessment of the evidence for that of the High Court in this appeal against acquittal
But we are of the opinion that it is impossible on any hypothesis to accept the conclusion of the High Court that the prosecution has failed to establish its case
With respect we regard the judgment of the High Court as severally laboured and unrealistic
Evidence which is incontrovertible has been rejected by the High Court on suspicion and surmises
Witnesses who had no axe to grind and had no personal motive to implicate the accused on a false charge have been disbelieved on feeble considerations
And the recovery of incriminating articles has been bypassed and disbelieved by characterising it as unnatural and incredible
Different crimes have different patterns and the offenders improvise their strategy according to the exigencies of the occasion
The High Court has rejected the prosecution story as not fitting in with the common course of events on the supposition and insistence that a crime of the present nature had to conform to a pattern of the kind which the High Court harboured in its mind
58 On the first question that is to say the question of identification the High Court gave an exaggerated importance to the infirmities attaching to the ability of the witnesses to identify the respondents
It was overlooked and when an argument in that behalf was made it was rejected that the respondents were arrested red handed and in a manner of speaking on the spot
There was no dispute that the incident of the kind alleged by the prosecution had taken place in the premises of the Bank
And it requires no strong persuasion to hold that after the Bank was looted the offenders whosoever they may be would try to escape
The lodging of the First Information Report within half an hour of the incident the prompt flashing of the wireless message to the police stations and police outposts in the vicinity the posting of police guards on the road to stop the car bearing a particular description if it was detected the accident which the car met with the emergence from the car of six or seven persons the pursuit which the police and the public gave them the shots fired by those persons the beating given by members of the public to them and the fact that they were ultimately over powered caught and arrested are all matters which are proved by the most clear and cogent evidence
Respondents are the persons who got down from the car after it met with an accident and they are the very persons who bear telltale marks of the rather severe drubbing given by the public
We are unable to understand how in these circumstances the High Court could have held that since the accused were not arrested on the spot the evidence regarding their identity must assume importance
The incident which took place in the Bank the attempt made by the offenders to escape and their pursuit by the police and the public are but links in the same chain of causation
They are parts of one and the same transaction
This therefore is a case in which the offenders were caught red handed near the place of offence while they were trying to escape
They fired while fleeing and caused injuries to those who were bravely trying to surround them but eventually the police and the public got the better of them
No further question survives but since the High Court has given great importance to some other aspects of the case we must advert to them
Equally significant is the circumstance that an office box Article 3 containing Rs 6800 was seized from the Ambassador car from which the respondents came out after the accident
The Memo of Seizure is at Exhibit P 22
The bundles of currency notes found in the box bore chits in the name of the Bank of Bikaner and 59 Jaipur Bayana Branch
The box also contained certain documents belonging to the Bank including a passbook of Head Clerk Radhe Shyam Bhargava PW 5
Some of the witnesses examined by the prosecution turned hostile which only shows what terror a lawless group of dacoits can strike in the minds of men
But the evidence of Babu Lal the Station House Officer Bayana who was examined as a Court witness by the High Court itself shows that the black box containing the money and the other articles was seized from the Ambassador car
The High Court has rejected this evidence with a broad and unfounded observation that the recovery memo was prepared subsequently
We are unable to share that view
The High Court says that It is not easily believable that the accused would leave Rs 6800 in the box lying in the car and each would run away with a thousand rupees
The story that a sum of Rs 1000 was found on the person of each of the respondents may or may not be accepted
But there is no infirmity attaching to the evidence of Babu Lal regarding the recovery of the black box from the car
Shri RK Garg who appears on behalf of the respondents urged that the box could have been easily planted by the police after the respondents were arrested
This submission is wholly unjustified
The box containing the currency notes which were a part of the loot was not left in the car as a matter of sweet volition
The respondents had no option save to abandon it in the car in which they were travelling when the car met with an accident and they were surrounded by the police and the public
What is natural by the test of common experience is that a biggish article containing the loot would be left by the thieves where it lies
They would not take it with them while running away in order to escape from the clutches of the people who were chasing them
The High Court has dwelt copiously on the question as to whether the number of the Ambassador car was disclosed in the first Information Report
The number of the car may or may not have been mentioned to the police by Goyal who gave the FIR
But we consider that to be a petty matter in the midst of a large mass of good evidence connecting the respondents with the crime
The fact that the respondents escaped in an Ambassador car is specifically mentioned in the FIR Exhibit P 1
In fact the FIR mentions that the Ambassador car bore the number DLJ 7458 but the High Court considered it as an interpolation since the entry Exhibit D 40 in the General Diary of the Police Station relating to the FIR does not mention the number of the car
The inference drawn by the High Court that the FIR was prepared later is unsustainable
The entry 60 D 40 is after all a summary and summaries are not intended to be exhaustive
Then they would cease to be summaries
It is difficult in an incident of this kind to have evidence as strong and clinching as we have before us
The only conclusion which one can come to upon that evidence is that the charge has been brought home to the accused
Accordingly we allow the appeal set aside the judgment of the High Court and restore the order of conviction recorded by the learned Sessions Judge against the respondents under section 395 of the Penal Code
The learned Judge had sentenced each of the respondents to rigorous imprisonment for three years
The judgment of the High Court is already a decade old
We are beholden that we are not yet faced with cases in their Silver jubilee year
Respondents have been on bail after undergoing a substantial part of the imprisonment
We understand that some of them are not working as Veterinary doctors or Assistants and have settled down as married men with children
Taking these factors into account we sentence each of the respondents to rigorous imprisonment for the period already undergone by them
We however impose upon each one of them a fine of rupees three thousand which they shall pay within three months from to day
Failing such payment the respondents shall each undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months
HLC Appeal allowed


Summary:
Seven or eight armed dacoits entered a bank at Bayana terrorised and beat up its employees looted currency notes worth Rs 15 253  put the same in a black box and drove away with the booty in an Ambassador car
The FIR was lodged within half an hour of the dacoity and wireless messages were sent out for interception of the car
Soon thereafter an Ambassador car having seven persons seated in it and being driven in panic arrived near Weir from the direction of Bayana and met with an accident
The police and the public surrounded the occupants of the car when they came out but they tried to escape by firing from their pistols
They were chased and arrested but not before some members of the public received injuries on account of the firing
The prosecution case was that it was the respondents who looted the bank escaped in the car and were chased and arrested that each of them was carrying a bundle of hundred currency notes of Rs 10 each that the black box found in the car contained currency notes of the value of Rs 6800 belonging to the looted bank and that live cartridges and knives had been recovered from the possession of some of the respondents
At the trial the respondents admitted that they had been arrested near Weir but denied any hand in the dacoity
The Sessions Judge rejected their plea and convicted them under section 395 IPC The High Court acquitted the respondents on three grounds i that the evidence regarding identification of the respondents was not convincing as some of the witnesses who had identified the dacoits in jail had failed to identify them before the trial court ii that the evidence regarding recovery of stolen property was not acceptable as the recovery memos were not genuine the knives and cartridges had not been produced before the court and the story that each of the respondents was carrying currency notes worth Rs 1000 while running away after leaving a sum of Rs 6800 in the black box was unnatural and iii that the allegation that the respondents had escaped in the Ambassador car and had come out of that car after it met with an accident was not acceptable in the absence of an entry relating to the number of the car in the General Diary of the Police
Allowing the appeal  HELD If two views of the evidence were reasonably possible in this appeal by special leave against acquittal the court would not have substituted 54 its own assessment of the evidence for that of the High Court
But it is impossible on any hypothesis to accept the conclusion of the High Court
It is difficult in an incident of this kind to have evidence as strong and clinching as it is before the Court
The only conclusion which one can come to upon that evidence is that the charge has been brought home to the accused
57 E F 60 B b The judgment of the High Court is severely laboured and unrealistic
Evidence which is incontrovertible has been rejected on suspicion and surmises
Witnesses who had no axe to grind and had no personal motive to implicate the accused on a false charge have been disbelieved on feeble considerations
And the recovery of incriminating articles has been by passed and disbelieved by characterising it as unnatural and incredible
Different crimes have different patterns and the offenders improvise their strategy according to the exigencies of the occasion
The prosecution story has been rejected as not fitting in with the common course of events on the supposition and insistence that a crime of the present nature had to conform to a pattern of the kind which the High Court harboured in its mind
57 F H i The High Court gave exaggerated importance to the infirmities attaching to the ability of the witnesses to identify the respondents and overlooked the fact that they had been arrested red handed and on the spot
The incident which took place in the bank the attempt made by the offenders to escape and their pursuit by the police and the public which had all been proved by the most clear and cogent evidence were but links in the same chain of causation and were parts of one and the same transaction
58 A B  F ii There was no infirmity attaching to the evidence of the Station House Officer Bayana who was examined as a court witness by the High Court itself regarding the recovery of the black box from the car and the High Court was not justified in rejecting his evidence
The submission that the box could have been easily planted by the police after the respondents were arrested is wholly unjustified
The box was not left in the car as a matter of sweet volition
The respondents had no option save to abandon it in the car when they were surrounded by the police and the public
What is natural by the test of common experience is that thieves while running away in order to escape from those who are chasing them would leave a biggish article containing the loot where it lies
59 D E iii The circumstance that the number of the car was not mentioned in the police diary was a petty matter in the midst of a large mass of good evidence connecting the respondents with the crime
59 G