(Per : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE RAVI R.TRIPATHI)
1. Respondent Nos.1 and 2 both are present before the Court.
1.1 Respondent No.1-Shivnaresh Pruthvinath Trivedi (sic-Diwedi) states that his date of birth is 15.04.1955; that he has studied up to 10 standard (high school); that he joined Air Force on 23.10.1973 and as per service condition, his term of service was 20 years; that as there was no extension, he got discharged from service on 31.10.1993; that he was serving in the Air Force as a Driver and was getting remuneration of Rs.3,583/-; that at present, he is getting pension of Rs.6,000/- per month.
1.2 About family background he states that his wife expired about three years back; that he has two daughters, both are married; that he has two sons, who are unemployed as on date; that the sons were 14 and 13 years of age respectively in 1993, meaning thereby, today they are 33 and 32 years of age; that at present, he is residing at Friends Colony, Harjindernagar, Kanpur; that he has purchased this house with the contribution of his father; that his father expired 5 to 6 years back and at that time, his father transferred this property (house) in the name of his wife, who has expired as stated hereinabove and still the property continues to be in the name of his wife; that he has a brother, who is residing in village and a sister who is married and residing at her in-laws place; that his brother is having a share in the property at Kanpur.
2. The aforesaid statement about the share of his brother in the property at Kanpur, on the face of it, sounds to be incorrect. If the property was purchased by him with the help of contribution of his father and it was in the name of his father, who has transferred the same in the name of his wife, there is no question of his brother having share in that property. However, he insisted that his brother is having share in that property.
2.1 At this juncture, learned Advocate Mr.B.P.Dalal requests that he may be granted one week's time to procure the writing by which his father transferred the property in the name of his wife.
Request is granted.
3. So far as accused No.2-Virendrasinh Pruthvirajsinh Tomar is concerned, he is aged 69 years; his date of birth is 19.07.1943; he retired from Air Force in the year 1991; today he is getting pension of Rs.20,000/-; that his wife is suffering from blood pressure and she is bedridden, as she is suffering from Asthma and knee pain.
4. On the face of it, the statement that his wife is bedridden is incorrect because the statement appears to have been made only with a view to earn sympathy of the Court. A patient suffering from Asthma may not be in a healthy condition, but certainly he cannot be described as bedridden.
5. About his family background he states that he has three daughters, aged 25, 23 and 21 years and two sons, aged 20 and 19 years; that his two elder daughters are married and third one is yet to marry; that his sons who are younger to third daughter are married; that he got married at the age of 18 years, but got children late and that is why age of the children is as aforesaid because if the younger son is of 19 years, it means he was borne when respondent No.2 was aged 50 years; that he is residing at Jamnagar; that he is having his own house; that his elder son is in the business of supplying labourers to Reliance and Essar industries; that he is having a team of 20-30 labourers and by supplying labourers, he earns Rs.4,000/- to Rs.5,000/- per month; that his second son is in the business of spare parts of bicycle and he is also having income of Rs.4,000/- to Rs.5,000/- per month.
6. None of the aforesaid facts makes out a case for awarding less than the minimum sentence.
However, the matter is adjourned to 05.03.2012 to enable accused No.1 to produce the documents of the property.
7. On inquiry, it is noticed that respondent No.2 is accompanied by his son-Ravindarsinh, who is elder son. The Court noticed that by no means, he can be said to be a young boy of 20 years and therefore, the Court inquired about his age. He states that he is aged about 35 years. When it is inquired that as to why did his father give his age to be 20 years, he explains that because his father is puzzled, he could not answer the questions of the Court properly. He further discloses that elder daughter of respondent No.2 is aged 40 years, second daughter is aged 36-37 years, third is the son aged 35 years, who is present in the Court, fourth is the daughter, aged 24-25 years and fifth is the son aged 21-22 years. About the health of his mother, he states that she is suffering from Asthma for last about 20 years and due to side-effects of drugs taken for Asthma, she is having swelling in her joints and therefore, her movement is reduced to almost nil; with difficulty, she is able to answer natural call that too by taking support of some one; that as his father could not understood meaning of the term 'bedridden', he used that term, otherwise the movement is so restricted that for almost for all the time, she has to lie down in bed.
(Ravi R.Tripathi, J.) (G.B.Shah, J.) *Shitole Top