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105. The witness also deposed that after the identification was completed, the
jewellery was re-sealed and the jewellery items brought by Anil Soni were taken
away. He also identified the jewellery (which had been identified by PW-1
before him) in court. PW-1 deposed among similar lines. The only difference
between the two depositions is that PW-1 stated that PW-7 was present (as a
matter of fact, he was not, as is evident from the testimony of PW-7). Apart
from urging this to be an inconsistency, counsel for appellants also cast
suspicion on the TIP of the jewellery, urging that neither Anil Soni nor the
police constable who took the sealed items to the venue of the TIP was
examined. In this court’s opinion, these omissions are minor, and do not shake
the essential credibility of the proper identification of the jewellery. In fact,
during cross examination, PW-12 clearly deposed that besides him no one was
present during the TIP of the articles and that after PW-1 completed the
identification, he drew the memo (Ex. P1) and kept the jewellery separately; the
rest were taken away by Anil Soni.
106. In this court’s opinion, a joint reading of the testimonies of PW-1 and
PW-12, on the one hand, and the TIP proceedings on the other (Ex. P1, dated
09.07.2011) establishes that the prosecution proved that the identification of the
looted articles, were correctly identified by PW-1. The accused’s counsel had
sought to urge that the articles were common pieces of jewellery, without any
distinctive features and that PW-1 could hardly know these- particularly,
jewellery of his mother-in-law. If one keeps in mind that PW-1 had reported the
loss of the articles, and listed them specifically, in his statement which was
given to the police on 21.06.2011, their subsequent recovery, at the behest and
pointing out of the accused, and their correct identification by PW-1 before PW12, there cannot be doubts on its credibility. During cross examination, PW-1
was not questioned about how he could identify jewellery articles of his wife,
daughter and mother-in-law. There can be various reasons, why someone may
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