LACHMAN SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) .-The three appellants were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge at Amritsar and found guilty of having murdered two persons named Darshan Singh and Achhar Singh and sentenced to transportation for life. The High Court of Punjab upheld their conviction and sentence and granted them a certificate under Art. 134 (1) (c) of the Constitution that the case is a fit one for appeal to this Court. Hence this appeal

(2.) The facts of the case may be briefly stated as follows On the evening of 16-12-1948, a little before sunset, Achhar Singh, one of the murdered persons went to the house of one Inder Singh in village Dalam for getting paddy husked. Achhar Singh's brother, Darshan Singh, who was working as a driver at Amritsar. came to Dalam from Amritsar the same evening, and on coming to know from his father that Achhar Singh had gone to Inder Singh's house, he also went there. While the two brothers were returning home, they were attacked by the three appellants and two of their relatives in a lane adjoining Inder Singh's house. The five assailants. who were armed with deadly weapons, inflicted a number of injuries on the two victims, as a result of which they died then and there After the murder, the appellants and their companions tied the two dead bodies in two kheses (wrappers) and took them to village Saleempura where two other persons named Ajib Singh and Banta Singh, joined them, and the dead bodies after being dismembered were thrown into a stream known as Sakinala at a place about five miles from village Dalam.

(3.) Before proceeding to discuss the evidence in the case, it is necessary to refer to what has been described as the motive for the murder. It appears that in June, 1947, Natha Singh, father of the third appellant, Swaran Singh, was murdered, and Darshan Singh and Achhar Singh, the two murdered persons in the case before us, and their third brother, Sulakhan Singh, were charged with the murder of that person. As a result of the trial. Darshan Singh was acquitted and Achhar Singh was sentenced to 11/2 years R. I., while Sulakhan Singh was sentenced to 7 years' R. I. The Judgment of the Sessions Judge in that case was delivered shortly before the date of the present occurrence, and it is common ground that Achhar Singh had been released on bail by the appellate Court and was at large at that time.