The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday confirmed the acquittal of a jeweller in a case filed against him on the charge of buying 40 sovereigns from a burglar two decades ago and directed the police to return the gold recovered from him
Dismissing a State appeal filed in 2003, even before the establishment of the High Court Bench, which was inaugurated in July 2004, Justice R. Mala held that there was no evidence to prove that the jeweller had purchased the stolen jewels and converted them into ingots.
The appeal was filed in the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai and transferred after the inauguration of the Madurai Bench as it pertained to a case registered by the Karaikudi police station in Sivaganga district.
According to the prosecution, a burglar had decamped with 40 sovereigns from the house of a hotelier at Karaikudi on April 25, 1994. The police arrested Seeni alias Murugan who was wanted in 17 criminal cases.
He reportedly confessed to having stolen the jewellery and sold them to the Madurai-based jeweller, Subramanian. Hence, the police booked the jeweller under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC and made him a prosecution witness.
However, after trial, a judicial magistrate court here acquitted the jeweller on November 27, 2002 for want of sufficient evidence, and hence the appeal.
Arguing the 11-year-old appeal, State Public Prosecutor S. Shanmugavelayutham said the magistrate relied more on defence witness S. Balasubramanian, president of the Madurai Jewellers and Bullion Merchants Association, than the evidence adduced by the burglar.
Ms. Justice Mala said the evidence of the burglar was not trustworthy. Further, since the hotelier had reported to have got back his jewellery in November 1994 itself, there was no evidence to show that the gold seized from the jeweller was that of the hotelier.
