Court sets aside acquittal, convicts man in illegal arms case
Court sets aside acquittal, convicts man in illegal arms case
New Delhi, A Delhi court has set aside an order in favour of a man accused in a cheating and illegal arms case, and said his acquittal was an "utter miscarriage of justice".
Additional sessions judge Vishal Singh was hearing the state’s appeal against the December 2019 order of a magistrate acquitting the accused Gurmeet Singh Bawa alias Sunny of the offences of cheating, impersonation, possessing forged document, using a forged document as genuine, forgery of documents to cheat and Arms Act.
In an order dated April 5, the court said, "The crux of allegation against Gurmeet Singh Bawa was that he was found possessing an illicit firearm, loaded with six live cartridges, he got issued a fake ration card from government authority by impersonating as one Pranabh Jain and used the forged ration card to get issued a passport from regional passport officer in favour of his assumed identity of Jain."
While examining the evidence, the court said the magisterial court had "erroneously" held that the charges of impersonation, forgery and cheating against Bawa were not proved.
Referring to a forensic science laboratory report, the court held Bawa to be "author" of the forged ration card and the passport application registration form.
"From the evidence, there was no scope of even an iota of doubt that the respondent had impersonated one Pranabh Jain and used his school and college certificates to cheat the government departments to issue a ration card and passport in favour of Jain with the photographs of the respondent affixed on them," the court said.
Bawa, it said, succeeded in obtaining the ration card and used it to support the application filed for the issuance of a passport in a fake identity.
"The trial court erroneously observed that since it was not proved that the respondent himself deposited the application forms for issuance of the ration card and passport, the said documents were not reliable," the court said.
The order observed only because the supporting documents filed with the passport application registration form were not found to be self-attested by Bawa, the magistrate was not justified in not relying on forensic evidence proving Bawa filled and filed the application form.
The court said that the recoveries, including of the illegal pistol, couldn't be doubted only on the grounds that the police did not join public witnesses.
"In the present case, the testimony of police witnesses was trustworthy and duly corroborated by other witnesses who produced the record of forged application forms deposited by the respondent in government departments, as well as by forensic handwriting expert and forensic ballistic expert," the court said.
The magisterial court had "misdirected" itself while appreciating the evidence and provided "irrational and illogical" reasoning for acquitting Bawa, it added.
"Being against the weight of evidence, the judgement was perverse. In view of the evidence recorded, a judgment of the respondent’s conviction was the only reasonable conclusion. His acquittal resulted in an utter miscarriage of justice," the court said.
Allowing the police's appeal, the court set aside the verdict and directed that Bawa to be convicted for the offences.
"The sentence shall be announced after hearing submissions from both sides," the court said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
