Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat let off Mukesh Kumar, Sanjay Khatri and P Rama saying they had carried out a sting operation in the godown of the Indane Gas Agency M/s Joginder Enterprises, owned by the complainant Sanjiv Singh, and had caught "the act of pilferage" going on there in their camera, so the owner had implicated them in the case.
"It is manifest that the petitioners (TV journalist) had in fact carried out a sting operation in the godown of the complainant (Singh) and caught the act of pilferage on camera and Singh had been running after them...In order to persuade them not to flash the video clip on the news channels.
"When Singh failed to persuade the three, he thought of a novel plan to make a complaint of robbery against them in the police station and got them implicated in a false case of robbery," the court said.
The sessions court judgement came on the appeal filed by the three against the magisterial court's January 2012 order, holding the trio guilty for offences punishable under Section 392 (robbery) and 385 (extortion) of the IPC.
The case of the prosecution before the trial court was that in June 2007, the complainant, Singh, had filed a written complaint in the police station at Naraina here.
He had alleged that three persons, including a woman, had forcibly entered his agency's godown here, ordered the godown keeper to pilfer gas from a cylinder and on his refusal, had roughed him up and robbed Rs 10,700 from him.
"At the time of the incident, Singh was out of station. He was informed about the incident by the godown keeper, by way of a telephone call," the prosecution had said. MORE