Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 34—Common intention—Apex Court in the case of Sudip Kumar Sen v. State of West Bengal, 2016 (3) SCC 26 held that essence of liability under Section 34 IPC is conscious mind of persons participating in the criminal action to bring about a particular result—Question whether there was any common intention or not depends upon inference to be drawn from the proved facts and circumstances of each case—Totality of the circumstances must be taken into consideration in arriving at the conclusion whether the accused had a common intention to commit an offence with which they could be convicted—No such evidence is produced on record by prosecution to prove the common intention even no any sufficient material available based on which inference could be drawn against the accuse persons.
[Para 17]
Section 171—Wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent—Proof of—Prosecution failed to prove that fifth and sixth respondent wore or carried tokens of the uniform of a police officer or public servant—Merely finding Khaki dress at the residence of the accused persons is not sufficient grounds to believe that the said uniform was used by them to impersonate as police officers—No iota of evidence has been produced on the record that the accused falsely pretended to be police officers, nor is there any evidence that they attempted to impersonate as police—Offence under Section 171 is not made out.
[Para 18]
Section 489(A) to (D)—Recovery of counterfeit currency—Appeal against acquittal—Mens rea is a sine qua non for inviting penalty—Prosecution has failed not only to prove the mens rea on the part of accused persons but also to establish that currency notes were forged—FSL failed to provide an opinion on the use of file—Prosecution also failed to prove that file was used in making the forged dollars or currency notes—Failure of prosecution to make its case against accused persons—Trial court has not committed any error in acquitting accused persons—No reason found to interfere with impugned order—Appeal dismissed.
[Paras 14 to 16]