E-Paper
Panchkula theft-accused walks free after police fail to produce stolen jewellery before court
The court ordered that any confession/disclosure statement made by the accused in police custody is not admissible in evidence in the absence of any recovery
Police’s failure to produce stolen gold before a local court led to the man accused of theft walking free.
Giving the benefit of doubt to the accused, Sabar, a resident of Ambala, Panchkula judicial magistrate (First Class) Aparna Bhardwaj acquitted him of the charges in the 2020 case.
“Any confession/disclosure statement made by the accused in police custody is not admissible in evidence in the absence of any recovery having been effected on the basis of said disclosure statement. No recovery of any gold articles was effected from the accused in the present case. It has been claimed by the prosecution that the accused had got controverted stolen gold articles into a chunk of gold and had got it be recovered in another case. The said chunk of gold alleged to have been recovered at the instance of the accused has not been produced in the present case,” the court ruled on October 5.
On November 20, 2020, a case had been registered on the complaint of Rohtash, who told the police that he had woken up from his sleep around 6:30 am to find out that jewellery kept in the trunk in the store room had been stolen.
A theft case was then registered at the Raipur Rani police station and police later filed an untraced report on February 12, 2021. The accused, Sabar, who was arrested in another case on August 13, 2021, brought on production warrants following his admission to involvement in the jewellery theft..
The prosecution had alleged that Sabar had converted the jewellery into a chunk of gold and the same was recovered on his disclosure. However, police failed to produce the same before the court.
The prosecution’s case was then solely based upon the disclosure statement made by the accused in police custody.
