IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH, AT HYDERABAD FRIDAY, THE 21ST DAY OF AUGUST, 2009 PRESENT: HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.V.SEETHAPATHY CRL.A.No.649 OF 2009 Between: Ramakrishna @ K.Rangaiah @ Rangadu and another …Appellants/A-3 and A-4 A n d The State of A.P. through S.H.O Veldanda P.S., Mahabubnagar District Rep. By Public Prosecutor High Court, Hyderabad. …Respondent/Complainant HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.V.SEETHAPATHY CRL.A.No.649 OF 2009 JUDGMENT: This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 20-12-2008 in Spl.C.C.No.26 of 2008, on the file of the I- Additional Sessions Judge, Mahabubnager, wherein the appellants/A-3 and A-4 herein, along with A-1, were found guilty of the offence under Section 136 (1)(a) of the Electricity Act, 2003 and were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years each. 2. Heard the learned counsel for the appellants/A-3 and A-4 and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the respondent/State. Perused the records. 3. The case of the prosecution is that the appellants herein along with others committed theft of electrical wire of 1000 metres at Kuppagandla village worth Rs.12,000/- and kept the same in bushes on 04-01- 2007 and that on 16-04-2007, they loaded the stolen wire into an auto trolley and while they were shifting the same to Hyderabad, the police apprehended A-1 and meanwhile A-2 to A-4 abandoned the auto and escaped from the scene and on the confessional statement made by A-1, the appellants/A-3 and A-4 were also arrested on 03-03-2008 and remanded to judicial custody on execution of P.T. warrant. A-2 is stated to be absconding. After full-fledged trial, the learned Sessions Judge found A-1, A- 3 and A-4 guilty of the offence and convicted and sentenced them as stated above. 4. It is not disputed that the appellants herein were involved in similar other offences wherein they were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. As against the conviction and sentence imposed in Spl.C.C.No.24 of 2008, the appellants/A-3 and A-4 preferred an appeal in Crl.A.No.191 of 2009 and this Court by judgment dated 25-02-2009, having noticed that the appellants have already undergone substantive period of sentence, modified the sentence by confining the same to the period already undergone. 5. It is not disputed that in five other cases also similar modification of sentence was ordered by this Court in different criminal appeals. In the present case, the appellants/A-3 and A-4 were remanded to judicial custody on 03-03-2008. By now, the appellants have undergone almost one and half years of sentence. It is stated that the father of first appellant/A-3 is bed-ridden and is in a critical condition. 6. Under those circumstances and in view of the orders passed by this Court in the other appeals relating to the appellants herein in respect of the similar offences, it considered that the ends of justice would be met by reducing the sentence of imprisonment to a period of one and half years. 7. In the result, subject to the above modification in sentence, which is now reduced to one and half years, the criminal appeal is dismissed. ____________________ G.V.SEETHAPATHY, J 21st August, 2009. Note: Issue cc by 24-08-2009 Lrkm.