Full Judgment Text
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CASE NO.:
Appeal (crl.) 1230 of 1998
PETITIONER:
BABU KUTTAN R.PILLAI & ANR.
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
STATE OF MAHARASHTRA
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 15/12/2000
BENCH:
S.S.M.Quadri, D.P.Mohapatro
JUDGMENT:
L.....I.........T.......T.......T.......T.......T.......T..J
J U D G M E N T
D.P. MOHAPATRA,J
This appeal, filed by accused no.1 Babu Kuttan
Ramkrishna Pillai and accused no.2 Umesh @ Babu Purshottam
Bhatt of TADA ACT Spl.Case No.33 of 1994, is directed
against the judgment and order dated 21.8.1998 of the
Designated Court at Brihan ‘Mumbai under the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (for short
TADA Act). In the said case seven accused persons faced
trial under Section 120-B read with 307 r/w 34, 307 r/w 114,
307 r/w 149, 387 r/w 34, 143, 144, 147, 148 and 506 (ii),
353 r/w 114 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(2)(ii),
3(3), 3(5), 5 and 6 of the TADA Act and section r/w 25(IB)
(a), Section 5 r/w 27 of the Arms Act. The gist of the
prosecution case relevant for the purpose of this proceeding
may be stated thus: With the growth of industry, commerce
and trade in and around the city of Mumbai which generates
substantial quantity of wealth, there has been increase of
organised activities by gangs of anti-socials to extract
money from affluent sections of society like developers,
hoteliers and other businessmen by putting them in fear of
death and then to demand substantial sums of money commonly
known as "Khadani" i.e. protection money. One such gang
was operating in the city under Amar Naik @ Bhai, who died
a couple of years before the decision in the case at an
encounter with the police. The prosecution alleged that in
pursuance of a criminal conspiracy between 15.1.1994 to
16.5.1994 the accused persons and others of the gang
embarked upon preparatory acts like procuring the
information about the names of the builders of M/s Kalpataru
Construction Company which was engaged in developing a
property at Pali Hill, named Nakshatra Building. PW-7
Sudhir Tambe was the Senior Vice-President of the company
with its head office at Nariman Point. He used to sit in
the head- office. PW 6 Pachapur, Civil Engineer, was an
employee of the company who used to remain at the site to
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supervise the construction. As the prosecution story runs,
on 15.4.1994 between 11.30 a.m. and 12.00 noon while PW 6
was on duty at the construction site, accused no.3, Nitin
Vasant Venugurlekar armed with revolver and accused No.4
Rajindera @ Rajan Mahadeo Margaj armed with a chopper and
accused no.5 Jayendra @ Jai Anandrao Jadhav also armed with
a chopper visited the site of Nakshatra Building; they
threatened the workers at the site, forcibly brought PW 6
Pachapur in a room on the ground floor and man-handled him.
Accused no.3, pointing a revolver at him demanded the name,
address and telephone number of the builders. PW 6
disclosed the name of PW 7 Tambe and gave his telephone
number to them. The accused then asked him to go to the
office of the builders at Nariman Point and make the
arrangement for a telephonic talk with Tambe. PW 6 rushed
to the office and told Tambe of what had happened at the
construction site. This was followed by telephonic calls
from the accused who wanted to speak to Tambe. Attempts
were made by PW 6 and PW 7 to avoid any discussion with the
gangsters. Two or three days thereafter when the accused
got Tambe on the telephone he (Tambe) gave them some other
telephone numbers and asked them to contact those persons
including one D.N.Ghosh, the Security Contractor. Eight/ten
days thereafter again a telephone call was made to the
office of Tambe which was received by PW 6 who was informed
by the person making the call that they could not get D. N.
Ghosh on the telephone numbers furnished by Tambe.
Thereafter PW 6 handed over the receiver to Tambe. This
incident was followed by several threats given by the
gangsters to workers and also repeated telephone calls made
to the Head Office of the company to contact Tambe. The
staff of the site office absented from work resulting in
virtual closure of construction activity. On 11.5.1994 the
deceased Sanjay Patil telephoned to Tambe and warned him
that he is wasting time and should meet him without further
delay. After some days there was one more similar call from
Sanjay Patil and he asked Tambe that he should talk to Bhai
and saying so he handed over the receiver to another person
who gave his identity as Amar Naik (since deceased), who
told Tambe that he should pay Rs.10 lacs. The later pleaded
his inability to pay such a heavy sum and after some
discussion agreed to pay Rs.5 lacs. He was asked to come to
Nakshatra Building site on 16.5.1994 along with money. In
the meantime Tambe informed all the happenings to the Addl.
Commissioner of Police Mr.Sanjeev Dayal and the then Dy.
Commissioner of Police of Zone VII Mr. Rajanish Sheth
within whose jurisdiction Khar Police Station fell.
On 16.5.1994 at about 12.00 noon the deceased Sanjay
Patil telephoned Tambe and inquired from him as to what he
was going to do about the payment and then Tambe replied
that he will be leaving office at about 2.00 p.m. for Pali
Hill. Sanjay Patil cautioned him that he should not make
any haste and he should wait for his call so that he will
take necessary instructions from his boss i.e. Amar Naik.
At about 2.00 p.m. on that day there was a telephone call
from Sanjay Patil telling that Tambe should not meet him at
the Nakshatra Building site but instead he should meet him
near the Ceaser Palace Hotel. This telephonic conversation
was tape-recorded. Tambe was instructed on telephone that
his man shall carry a white plastic bag containing the
amount of Rs.5 lacs and shall wait near the entrance gate of
Ceaser Palace Hotel and the person coming to collect the
said bag will introduce himself as Me Rawanacha Manus Hai.
Tambe informed to the DCP all these happenings and handed
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over the tape in which the telephonic conversation was
recorded by him. The DCP had made the arrangements to keep
a regular watch near the building site. PW 1 Sunil Deshmukh
was deployed to wait in cognito near the gate of the Ceaser
Palace Hotel and to carry the white plastic bag containing
bundles of papers which would give an appearance like the
bundles of currency notes. The other officers, who were
also in cognito, had taken their position at strategic
points near the hotel. At about 4.05 p.m. Sunil Deshmukh
noticed that one red coloured Maruti van halted in front of
the Ceaser Palace Hotel. He noticed three persons getting
down from the said van. Those three persons were coming in
his direction, and the van went ahead 50 to 60 feets and
halted there. The deceased Sanjay Patil and the accused
no.7 Bapu Sidhram Gaikwad got down from the said van and
accused no.6 Mohamed Ismail was sitting on the driver seat
in the van. The three accused persons i.e. accused no.1
Babu Kuttan Pillai, accused No.2 Umesh @ Babu Bhatt and the
absconding accused Ramchandra Negi approached PW 1. He
enquired from PW1 about his identity and when PW 1 replied
that he has been sent by Tambe Sahib. PW 1 Sunil Deshmukh
then asked that person who are you (Tum Kaun Hai) and then
the accused no.2 Umesh Bhatt told him that Hum Rawan Ke
Aadmi Hai. Thereafter accused no.1 Babu Kuttan extended
his hand towards PW 1 who delivered the bag to him. At this
juncture the police officers who were standing nearby in
cognito rushed to the place and surrounded the three
persons. When the police officers were trying to overpower
them the deceased Sanjay Patil @ Avinash Amanna and the
accused no .7 Bapu Sidhram Gaikwad came forward with
revolvers in their hands and threatened the police party by
saying they should leave their men or else the policemen
will be killed. Saying so they fired in the direction of
the police party. At this point PW 1 took out his revolver
and pointed it in the direction of the accused and told them
we are all policemen and you should throw away your
revolvers else we will fire. Even then the accused persons
fired some rounds in the direction of the police party, then
PW 1 and one other officer tried to rush towards them but
they sat in the said Maruti van and sped away from the
place.
After the situation calmed down, the police drew the
panchnamas Ex.22 in presence of some witnesses and
conducted personal search of the three culprits. On such
search accused no.1 Babu Kuttan Pillai was found to possess
the plastic bag containing the paper bundles (Art.1),
accused no.2 Umesh Bhatt was found to possess a big Rampuri
knife which was hidden at the waist under the pant by left
side.
After completion of investigation the police submitted
the charge-sheet. The three persons at the spot were
remanded to the police custody. Subsequently, the other
accused persons were also arrested. They were put to test
identification parade. The learned Trial Judge on
appreciation of the evidence on record convicted accused
no.1 Babu Kuttan Ramkrishna Pillai and the accused no.2
Umesh @ Babu Purshottam Bhatt for the offence punishable
under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced
each of them to suffer rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and
to pay a fine of Rs.500, in default of payment of fine to
undergo further Rigorous Imprisonment for 6 months. They
were also convicted under Section 120 B of the IPC but no
separate sentence was passed. They were acquitted of the
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other offences with which they were charged. The remaining
accused persons i.e. accused nos. 3,4,5,6 and 7 were
acquitted of all the charges framed against them. Accused
nos. 1 and 2, have filed this appeal assailing the judgment
passed by the Designated Court at Brihan Mumbai,
convicting/sentencing them as above.
On a reading of the judgment under challenge, we find
that the learned trial Judge has considered the entire case
led by the prosecution in great detail and after discussing
the charges framed against the appellants under sections
3(2), 3(3) and 3(5) of TADA Act, rejected the prosecution
case on that count. Thereafter the learned trial Judge in
paragraph 17 onwards considered the question of what offence
was made out against the appellants. After a detailed
discussion of the relevant evidence placed by the
prosecution and after examining it in the light of the
contentions on behalf of the defence, the learned trial
Judge believed the testimony of PW 1- Sunil Deshmukh, PW 7 -
Tambe and PW 9 - L.J. Kamble and came to hold that the
appellants are guilty of the offence of criminal conspiracy
punishable under section 120-B and the offence of dacoity
punishable under section 395 IPC and convicted them
thereunder and imposed the punishment as noted earlier.
We have perused the evidence of these witnesses. We
do not find that the appreciation of evidence made by the
learned trial Judge suffers from any illegality nor can
findings recorded by him be said to be perverse. The
learned trial Judge has given cogent reasons for accepting
the evidence lead by the prosecution against the appellants
and for rejecting the contentions raised by the defence. We
are not satisfied that the judgment of the learned trial
Judge calls for interference by this Court. Accordingly the
appeal is dismissed.