In a once in a lifetime court ruling, after a 22-year wait, the owners of Charagh Din, an established name in the fashion community, received stolen property worth over Rs 8 crore.
Sessions judge U J More on January 5 passed an order to hand over the property, comprising one gold coin containing Queen Victoria¡¯s picture, two gold bracelets, and two ingots weighing 1,300 gram and 200 milligram (collectively worth Rs 13 lakh then and now over Rs 8 crore) to Raju Daswani, the son of Charagh Din founder Arjan Daswani.?
Public prosecutor Iqbal Solkar as well as inspector Sanjay Donnar of Colaba police stated they had no objection to return the property, subject to certain conditions. Raju Daswani submitted various bills and receipts, which confirmed that the booty belonged to his family.?
¡°No purpose will suffice by keeping the articles, especially gold articles, in custody of the police. More than 19 years have passed. The judgment of acquittal in this case (was) by the learned session court. No progress (made) in the arrest of two absconding accused. If a complainant asked to wait for years and years together for the return of his own property, it would be a mockery of justice and abuse of the process of law,¡± the order said.?
A precedent was cited too.?
¡°Considering the ratio laid down in Sunderbai Ambala Desai's case, the applicant is entitled for return of all the properties claimed in the application,¡± the order said.
On May 8, 1998, a gang armed with knives barged into the house of Arjan Daswani, who resided on the fourth floor of Joy Eden building at Merryweather Road, Colaba. The gang assaulted the security guard, forcibly took the keys of the safe, tied up Daswani and his wife and fled with the booty.?
Police arrested three of the accused who were booked for robbery, wrongful confinement and under the Bombay Police Act. Police in 1998 recovered part of the booty.?
After the committal of the case to the sessions court in 1999, a trial was conducted and the three were acquitted. Three more accused are still absconding. Arjan Daswani died in 2007.
The court has set a condition that the articles are produced as and when directed by the court.?
The articles cannot be sold and default would result in forfeit of Rs 1 lakh. The court also directed the police to take pictures and prepare a detailed handing-over panchnama.?
Raju Daswani's lawyer, Sunil Pandey, said, ¡°It¡¯s a major relief to the family as there is a lot of emotional attachment to the ornaments, which are from their ancestors.¡± Police said Raju's two sisters (living in Canada and the US), who were also legal heirs of the property, had given no-objection certificates if the gold was given to him.
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