2 men acquitted in cases of daylight robbery & chain-snatching

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Two men from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, accused in three different cases of robbery, all in the Jnanabharati police station limits, were acquitted by the High Court after the police and prosecution failed to prove the cases.

The three appeals filed by the police in three different cases were heard by the bench of Justice HB Prabhakara Sastry and Justice Anil B Katti who gave a common judgement.

The HC noted that the knife used to threaten women and rob them of gold ornaments in all three cases was never recovered.

“Though it is the case of the prosecution that the accused had committed the alleged offences by threatening the victims in all the three Sessions Cases, by showing them a knife, however, for the reasons best known to it, it has not recovered the said knife from the accused and got it marked as Material Object. The Investigating Officer in his evidence also has not whispered about any attempt made for the recovery of said knife and the reason for not recovering the said knife.”

The HC said, “As such, though the prosecution was able to show that an incident of robbery had taken place, however, it failed to establish that the said offence was committed by the accused and accused alone.”

The prosecution also botched up the test identification parade by first showing the accused to the victims and then conducting the parade. “The whole idea of a Test Identification Parade is that witnesses who claim to have seen the culprits at the time of the occurrence are to identify them from the midst of many other persons without any aid or any other source. It further observed that the identification parade does not hold much value when the identity of the accused is already known to the witnesses.”

The accused are Vikki Singh (36) and Vishal Singh (26), both from Fatehbad taluk in Agar, UP. The first victim, Sundaramba was robbed at Papareddipalya, Nagarabhavi on February 13, 2013.

Another victim CV Subbalakshmi was robbed at knife point on March 1, 2013, in Nagarabhavi by two bike-borne assailants. On May 22, 2013, the last victim Bhagyamma who was walking in front of her house in Annapoorneshwarinagar was similarly threatened and her gold mangalya chain was stolen.

Apart from robbery, the two accused were also charged under Section 413 of the IPC for selling stolen goods as habitual offenders.

Dismissing all the three appeals filed by the police, the HC said, “Since it is considering the evidence placed before it by the prosecution and appreciating the evidence, the Sessions Judge's Court has given its finding acquitting all the accused of the alleged offences, which by the above analysis, could not be found fault with, we find no reasons to interfere in the judgments of acquittal passed by the Sessions Judge's Court in all the three Sessions Cases under appeals.” (CRLA 36/1834/1962/2016)