Taking strict note of a man setting a car on fire after sprinkling petrol on it, judicial magistrate Aman Inder Singh, in a first of its kind conviction, awarded two-year jail to a resident of Indira colony after nearly two years of being booked. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on convict Kaka Ram, a welder, and held him guilty on the basis of an extra-judicial confession.
An extrajudicial confession is a confession made out of court, and not as a part of a judicial examination or investigation.
On October 24, 2013, Ravi Kumar, a resident of Manimajra, lodged a complaint with the police alleging that some unidentified person had set his car parked outside his house on fire. He said that at about 2.30am, his neighbors woke him up and told that his car has been burnt by some unknown person. On June 12, 2014, Kaka was arrested for the crime and was booked under Section 435 (causing mischief) of the IPC.
For this, the court considered the extra-judicial confession of accused Kaka Ram before one Shivani, one of the people in whose house he had worked as a welder.
Shivani deposed before the court that the accused Kaka Ram worked as a welder in her house in 2013 and on October 24, 2013, came to her house at night and confessed to have set a car on fire by sprinkling petrol on it.
Disbelieving Kaka Ram's submissions that the car itself had caught fire owing to a technical fault and he was falsely implicated, the court pronounced him guilty.
{{/usCountry}}Disbelieving Kaka Ram's submissions that the car itself had caught fire owing to a technical fault and he was falsely implicated, the court pronounced him guilty.
{{/usCountry}}The court held, "The statement of Shivani proved that the accused Kaka Ram damaged the car by sprinkling petrol. The defence of the accused that all the witnesses are police officials does not hold any water as there is no reason for police officials to depose against the accused; the said officials were only performing their official duty."
Dismissing the plea of the accused for leniency, the court said, "The accused has set a car on fire. The act of the accused is deplorable and a serious one and he cannot be let off on probation for the same."