MAHABIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An accused in a murder case barged into a courtroom on his own during the morning hours, exhibiting a knife and wanting the Magistrate to record his confession. The Magistrate obliged him to do so and after administering oath to him the Magistrate recorded the confession and got it signed by the confessor. A Sessions Judge and Division Bench of the High Court Punjab and Haryana accepted the said confession as legally admissible, found it to be genuine and voluntary and acted upon it, among other things, and acted upon it, confessor of a murder-charge and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He is Ranbir Singh - the first accused - who filed this appeal by special leave.

(2.) There were three other accused arraigned along with Ranbir Singh for the offence of murder of the same deceased with the aid of Section 34 of IPC. The Sessions Court found them not guilty and acquitted. But the Division Bench of the High Court, on appeal filed by the State, reversed the acquittal and convicted them also under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced them to imprisonment for life. They have filed this appeal as of right under Section 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'the Code') and Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970. All the appellants were heard together.

(3.) The case relates to the murder of a twenty-year old youth by name Anand, on the evening of 11-10-1991 by stabbing him all over his body, practically sparing no limb left unwounded. Prosecution has traced out the backdrop that the said deceased was responsible for the untimely death of an adolescent girl, the sister of Ranbir Singh, as the aftermath of that lass being ravished. Though Ranbir Singh described to others that his sister died due to cardiac arrest he was harbouring in his mind an unstable vengeance towards the deceased.