New Delhi, Aug 20 A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of circulating Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) worth Rs 7.5 lakh via the Bangladesh border in the national capital, citing several material contradictions that cast strong doubts against the prosecution.
Amit Bansal, Judge of the Special Exclusive Court (NIA Act), was hearing the case registered by the Delhi Police's Special Cell in 2018 under IPC Sections 489 B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) and 489 C (possession of forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) against the accused, Deepak Mandal, a resident of Malda in West Bengal.
In a verdict dated August 19, the court said, "It is held that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused. The accused is thus acquitted in this case."
According to the prosecution, based on a tip-off, a trap was laid on August 9, 2018, near the DTC Bus Depot in Khanpur, and a police officer acted as a decoy customer to buy fake notes from Mandal.
The police alleged that Mandal was apprehended after he handed over two wads of fake Rs 2,000 notes (totalling Rs 7.5 lakh) in exchange for a dummy wad.
In its verdict, the court said according to the testimonies of witnesses, a black-coloured bag contained two polythenes that had the FICNs used by the accused, but the bag and polythenes were not seized by the prosecution, creating a "material lacuna" and raising a "strong doubt" on its case.
It said that despite the arrest at a heavily crowded public place at 9.50 pm, no independent public witnesses were joined in the investigation and the police officials did not even record the names or addresses of passersby who allegedly refused to join, raising "serious doubts about the credibility of the seizure".
Another "adverse inference" to the police case, the court said, was mentioning the FIR number on seizure memos and documents that were supposedly prepared before the FIR was actually registered at the police station.
"The number of FIR given on the top of the aforesaid documents clearly indicate that either the FIR was recorded prior to the alleged recovery or number of the said FIR was inserted in these documents after its registration and in both the situations, it seriously reflects upon the veracity of the prosecution version and creates a great deal of doubt about the recovery of FICNs in the manner as alleged by the prosecution," the court said.
It said that a key police witness, Inspector Ishwar Singh, who knew about the tip-off and who supervised the preparation of the raiding team, was not cited or examined as a prosecution witness.
The court said that a crucial police witness who acted as a decoy customer said during his examination-in-chief that he shared the secret information with senior officers about Mandal around 15 days before the date of the raid, but the official during his cross-examination, said that he shared the tip-off on the date of the raid.
It flagged it as another material contradiction.
There were also contradictions or conflicting accounts over the dummy wad prepared by the police, the court noted.
It said that the police official acting as decoy customer said that the investigating officer (IO) prepared it, using scissors in the police station, but the IO claimed he had it prepared by a professional bookbinder in the market two or three days before the raid.
There were also significant contradictions regarding when the raiding team was briefed, the court said.
It said that while one police witness claimed the team was briefed at 7 pm, the official who acted as the decoy customer testified that the secret informer (who prompted the raid) did not even arrive at the office until 7.30 pm.
"It is a material contradiction raising a very strong doubt in the testimonies of material prosecution witnesses which raise strong doubt upon the veracity of the prosecution witnesses and the entire case of the prosecution."
"The benefit of doubt goes in favour of the accused who is entitled to acquittal in the present case," the court said.
