A Delhi court has held two youths guilty of committing robbery at knife point in a moving DTC bus, relying on the testimony of a police officer travelling in the same vehicle after the victim refused to identify the accused.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala convicted Delhi residents Rahul and Naushad for the offences under sections 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 392(robbery) of IPC and sections of Arms Act.
The court is yet to pronounce quantum of sentence to the accused.
Convicting the accused, the ASJ said it was not necessary that in absence of reliable testimony from the complainant or other public witnesses, the court cannot raise presumption of guilt of accused on the basis of testimony of police witnesses.
"It is well settled law that police witnesses are not lesser credible witnesses, unless their testimony is found suffering from some material contradiction.
"There is no rule of law,which says that public witnesses speak truthfully in all the circumstances and police witnesses speak falsely in all circumstances," the court said.
Lauding head constable Kamta Prashad on whose testimony the court relied to bring home the guilt of the accused, the judge said "he was not on his duty at the relevant time, still he acted like a prudent citizen as well as a responsible police officer not only to prevent any mis-happening by way of use of the knife, but also to nab the robbers by intervening in the matter."
The court also observed that the conduct of other passengers of the bus did not seem to be very positive in the given account of the incident.
According to the prosecution, victim Dushyant Singh and his friend Tarun Kumar were travelling in the DTC bus, when Rahul and Naushad who boarded it later, took away his mobile phone after threatening him with a knife.
