HC reverses trial court's verdict, acquits five

Mumbai, June 15 (UNI) The Bombay High Court has acquitted five people who were earlier convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment by a sessions court here for attempting robbery at a jewellery shop at Kandivali.

A single judge bench of Justice J H Bhatia reversed the session court's verdict and acquitted Subhash Rajbhar, Ghanshyam Rajbhar, Ramdular Bharadwaj, Babulal Maurya and Dinesh Rajbhar.

The judge refused to accept the confession of Subhash, which was the sole basis of their conviction by the sessions court, as it was recorded in the absence of a magistrate. In his confession, Subhash had admitted that they were preparing to rob at a jeweller shop located near the Kandivali station. But, apart from his statement, the whole case was based on statements of police officials.

Justice Bhatia noted that although the trial court had convicted all the accused under section 402 of the IPC, charge was not framed under that section. hd also observed that mere possession of arms does not prove that the accused were there to commit robbery when there were no antecedents.

The five were arrested on August 11, 2005 for allegedly attempting robbery. All of them were arrested from a room rented by Ghanshyam, and four countrymade revolvers and a ''Kukri'' was recovered from them.

UNI