Sheo Nath vs The State of U.P.

Sikri, J.—The only question which arises in this appeal by special leave is whether the Appellant, Sheo Nath, should be convicted u/s 396,

I.P.C. or Section 411, I.P.C., or Section 412, I.P.C. The facts as found by the High Court are these, A dacoity was committed at the, shop of

Ram Murat in Dhaneja village by 15 to 20 persons on 19th August 1966, at about 11-30 p.m. One dacoit, Ram Shankar, was armed with a gun

while others carried spears, Gandasas and lathis. During the course of the dacoit Ram Murat was injured. One Pancham, who lived in a house not

far from Ram Murat''s shop, and two others came renning on hearing the noise. Pancham was shot down with the gun by dacoit Ram Shankar,

The deceits then escaped with clothes, ornaments, cash, etc. looted from Ram Murat''s shop. After the dacoits left Ram Murat dictated a report

about the occurrence in which he named Ram Shankar Singh, Jaintrl Prasad Singh, Nanhe Singh and Sulai accused as having been among the

culprits and this report was sent to the Jalalpur police station, five miles away, where it was received and recorded at 6 a.m. next morning.

On 22nd August 1966, i.e three days, after the dacoity, the house of Sheo Nath, Appellant, was searched and three lengths of cloth were

recovered which were subsequently identified by Ram Murat and a tailor named Bismillah as having been stolen from Ram Murat''s shop in the

dacoity.

The High Court, agreeing with the learned Sessions Judge, relied on the evidence of three eye witnesses regarding the manner in which the

occurrence took place and regarding the participation of the four named accused persons. Sheo Nath had not been named by the eye-witnesses or

in the dying declaration of Pancham and no witness claimed to have Identified him taking part in the dacoity, But, relying on the discovery of three

lengths of cloth and their identification, the High Court convicted Sheo Nath u/s 396, I.P.C. The High Court observed:

From the material on record we are fully convinced that the Exhs. 2 and 3 were stolen item the Shop of Ram Murat in the course of the dacoity

committed in the night between 19 to 20 August 1966, and since they were recovered from the possession of Sheo Nath Appellant only 2 or 3

days later, it is legitimate to infer that he was one of the dacoits, vide illustration (a) to Section 114 of the Evidence Act. Sheo Nath, therefore, has

been rightly convicted u/s 396, I.P.C.

The learned Counsel for the Appellant contends that in the circumstances of the case the High Court should not have convicted the Appellant u/s

396, I.P.C., but only u/s 411, I.P.C. Section 114 of the Evidence Act and illustration (a) read as follows:

114, The Court may presume the existence of any fact which it thinks likely to have happened, regard being had to the common course of natural

events, human conduct and public and private business, in their relation to facts of the particular case.

illustration,

The Court may presume-

(a) that a man who is in possession of stolen goods after the theft, is either the thief or has received the goods knowing them to be stolen, unless he

can amount for his possession.

This Section was considered by this Court is Sanwat Khan and Another Vs. State of Rajasthan, . This Court, after considering some High Court

cases, observed:

In our judgment no hard and fast rule can be laid down as to what inference should be drawn from a certain circumstance. Where, however, the

only evidence against an accused person is the recovery of stolen property and although the circumstances may indicate that the theft and the

murder must have been committed at the same time, It is not safe to draw the inference that the person in possession of the stolen property was the

murderer. Suspicions at cannot take the place of proof.

In Wasim Khan Vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh, this Court held that ""recent and unexplained possession of the stolen property while it would be

presumptive evidence against a prisoner on the charge of robbery, would similarly be evidence against him on the charge of murder."" On the facts

of that case this Court held that the Appellant was rightly convicted of the offence of murder and robbery. But, apart from the possession of stolen

property, there were other circumstances indicating that the Appellant was guilty of murder and robbery. The circumstances were that the

Appellant in that ease had travelled with the deceased on his bullock cart alone and the deceased never reached his home and was found

murdered. The Appellant was found in possession of the goods of the deceased three days after and the Appellant made no effort to trace the

whereabouts of the deceased or lodge information of his disappearance from the bullock cart.

In the present case three presumptions are possible from the recovery of the stolen goods from the Appellant three days after the occurrence of the

dacoity:

(1) that the Appellant took part in the dacoity.

(2) that he received stolen goods knowing that the goods were stolen in the commission of a dacoity; and

(3) that the Appellant received these goods knowing them to have bees stolen.

The choice to be made, however, must depend on the facts proved in this case. It is quite clear that all the property which was stolen by the

dacoits was not recovered from the Appellant. We may repeat that clothes ornaments, cash, etc. were stolen. The only articles that were found

with the Appellant were a length of muslim (Exh. 2) and a length of Charkhana doriya (Exh. 3). The Appellant is stated to he a cloth merchant and

he may well have acquired these goods as a receiver. It has not been shown that in the village in which the Appellant lived it was known that a

dacoity had takes place and goods had been stolen in the dacoity.

On the facts of this case it seems to us that the only legitimate presumption to be drawn it that the Appellant knew that the goods were stolen but

he did not know that they were stolen in a dacoity. The Appellant, therefore, can only be convicted u/s 411 I.P.C.

In this connection we may refer to a decision of the Rajasthan High Court in Bhurgiri v. The State ILR (1954) Raj 476, 482-84 (Wanchoo, C.J.,

and Dave, J). Wanchoo, C.J., after holding that the recovery of ornaments from Bhurgiri had been established, observed:

The next question is whether on this evidence Bhurgiri can be convicted for dacoity. The recovery took place five days after the dacoity. It is not

impossible that during that period the property might have passed from the dacoits to a receiver. Under these circumstances, we are of opinion that

it would cot be safe to convict Bhurgiri of dacoity on the evidence of this recovery alone. It would be more proper to convict him as a guilty

receiver.

Then the question arises whether he should be convicted u/s 411 or 412, I.P.C. So far as Section 411 is concerned, he is clearly guilty under the

section . The presumption u/s 114 applies, and we can safely presume that he is a guilty receiver of stolen property particularly when we find that

the property was kept in the Bara, and not at his own house. He must have had reason to believe that it was stolen when he received the property,

and that is why he left it in the Bara. But we felt that it would not be proper to convict him u/s 412 because that section requires that the receiver

should knew or have reason to believe that the property had been transferred by the commission of dacoity. The prosecution, in our opinion, has

to show something mere than the mere possession of stolen goods for a conviction u/s 412. If the prosecution is only able to show mere

possession, the proper section to use is 411.

In the result the appeal is allowed and the Appellant convicted u/s 411, I.P.C., and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years.