AMARJIT SINGH BALKAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three appeals arise out of a common judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and they are being disposed of together here. Original accused Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10 to 14 and 16 are the appellants before us.

(2.) On 12-9-74 at about 9/ 10 A. M. a rioting of grave nature took place in village Bath in Amritsar District, during the course of which four persons were killed and several persons received injuries. In connection with this occurrence 17 accused persons were tried under Sections 148, 302, 307, 324, 325 and 323 read with Section 149, I.P.C. and Section 27 of the Arms Act by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar. The learned trial Judge acquitted accused Nos. 3, 7, 8, 9, 15 and 17 and convicted the remaining 11 accused under Sec. 302 read with Section 149, I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to undergo imprisonment for life. They were also convicted under Sections 148, 307/149, 323/149, 324/ 149 and 325/ 149, I.P.C. and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Four of them were also convicted under Section 27 of the Arms Act and sentenced to one year's R. I. The sentences were directed to run concurrently. The convicted accused filed Criminal Appeals Nos. 1608/75, 1645/75 and 52/76 against their respective convictions. The State of Punjab filed Criminal Appeal No. 508/76 against acquittal of the six accused. It also filed Criminal Appeal No. 322/76 for enhancement of the sentence of imprisonment for life to death against A- 1 and others and Criminal Revision No. 391/76 was filed by one Madagan Singh, a private party. The High Court confirmed convictions and sentences imposed on all the 11 convicted accused and their appeals were dismissed. The High Court also dismissed the appeals filed by the State and the criminal revision filed by Madagan Singh. All the 11 convicted accused have preferred these three appeals before us. The prosecution case is as follows: All the accused persons, the four deceased persons and the material witnesses belong to Village Bath. The house of Gopal Singh, P.W. 13 are situated in Village Bath on the metalled road leading from Taran Taran to Rayya. The mud-house of his nephew Piara Singh, P.W. 24 adjoined his house. About 5 or 6 months prior to the occurrence, Piara Singh, P.W. 24 had gone to Amritsar with his family to earn his livelihood there. At the time of his departure from the village, he entrusted his house to his cousin brother Gian Singh, A-4 who had earlier been residing at Rayya. Some days prior to this occurrence, Piara Singh, P.W. 24 returned from Amritsar along with his family and took his house back from Gian Singh, A-4. The latter wanted to retain one room out of the three rooms but Piara Singh, P.W. 24 did not agree. A-4 was employed by A-1 Sarpanch. In the dispute between P.W. 24 and his cousin A-4, A-1 took the side of A-4 to forcibly occupy one room. The mud-wall of the house abutting the road side was dismantled and a door was installed. P.W.24 took the matter to the brotherhood of Mazhabis namely his caste people. On the fateful day i.e. 12-9-74 at about 9 / 10 A. M. there was a gathering of his community at the place of occurrence to consider the action of A-1 and A-4 in dismantling the wall and installation of the door. The Panchayat of Mazhabis brotherhood decided that the new door opened forcibly by the accused should be closed and some of the prosecution witnesses closed the newly opened door and the door erected by A-4 was dismantled. On seeing the gathering, all the 17 accused persons under the leadership of Amarjit Singh, A-1 came from his house variously armed. Out of them accused Nos. 1, 5, 6 and 13 were armed with guns, A-2 was armed with a rifle and A-4 was armed with a pistol. The others were armed with sharp-edged weapons. Immediately after reaching on the spot, A-1 fired from his gun which hit on the abdomen of Charhta Singh deceased son of Gopal Singh, P.W. 13. Thereafter all the accused who were armed with fire-arms opened fire as a result of which many persons got injuries and fell down. The other accused armed with other weapons came forward and inflicted injuries upon the fallen victims with their respective weapons. Charhta Singh, Chanan Singh and Smt. Jito died on the spot. Several prosecution witnesses and others in all about 15 to 20 persons were seriously injured. P. W. 13 got a lift on the carrier of the bi-cycle of one Karam Singh and proceeded towards Police Station Taran Taran and gave a report at about 10.30 A.M. S. I. Baldev Singh, P.W. 57 registered the crime, left for the place of occurrence along with A. S. I. Narsingh Dass P.W. 56 and a posse of constables and reached the place of occurrence by 12 Noon. By then most of the injured persons either had left the place or had been taken for first aid and medico legal examination. Only Smt. Banti P.W. 30 and one Bachan Singh out of the injured persons were available. The Invetigating Officer prepared the inquest reports on the three dead bodies and they were despatched for post-mortem. He sent P.W. 30 to the Hospital. He recovered five empty cartridges at the scene of occurrence and prepared a memo Ex. P. 11. On the following day, the Investigating Officer arrested some of the accused persons and recovered some weapons. He could not arrest A-1 and proceedings were initiated under Section 87, Cr. P.C. In the meantime A-1 surrendered. The other accused were arrested on various dates. Coming to know that some of the injured persons had been taken to Taran Taran and Amritsar Civil Hospitals, the Investigating Officer proceeded there and came to know that one Ala Singh, who also received injuries at the time of occurrence, died in the course of the investigation. The statements of the other injured witnesses were recorded. After completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was laid.

(3.) The prosecution examined 60 witnesses out of which 7 were Doctors and 20 of them were eye-witnesses. All of them except P.W. 13 were injured. The remaining witnesses were of formal character. The accused pleaded not guilty. Accused Nos. 1, 6 and 17 pleaded alibi. A- 1 pleaded that on 8-9-74, four days prior to the day of occurrence while riding a motor-cycle he got injured and was hospitalised and on coming to know about the case he surrendered. In support of his plea of alibi he examined D. W. 1, a Doctor and D. W. 3, a PCMS Officer. A-6 examined D. V. 2, a retired Head Constable to prove that on the day of occurrence he was at Ludhiana. A- 17 examined D. Ws. 6, 7 and 8, Principal and Lecturers of Government College, Taran Taran to prove that A-17 attended the College on the day of occurrence. A-2 and A-4 admitted that they were present at the scene of occurrence but they put forward a different version of the manner of occurrence. A-4 stated that he was in peaceful possession of the portion of the house of Piara Singh, P.W. 24. On the day of occurrence he noted the deceased persons along with others closing the door. He went to the house of A-1 to inform him but he was not available. He only found A-2 present who followed A-4 to the place where the door was being closed. A-2 tried to intervene but he was abused and assaulted and injuries were caused to him with gandasis by the deceased party. A-4 found the life of A-2 in danger. Therefore he fired 4-5 shots from a DBBL 12 Bore gun resulting in injuries to some of the Mahzabis while others ran away. On hearing the noise some other villagers came to the place of occurrence and inflicted injuries on the fleeing Mahazabis. In substance A-4 took upon himself the authorship of causing the death of the deceased persons and the gun-shot injuries to P.Ws in the exercise of right of private defence of his property and the person of A-2. The learned trial Judge after a detailed analysis of the evidence of the eye-witnesses and the other circumstantial evidence including the medical evidence convicted 11 accused giving the benefit of doubt to remaining six accused. The learned trial Judge accepted the plea of alibi put forward by A-17 while acquitting him. He also rejected the evidence of the defence witnesses except those examined in support of the plea of alibi of A-17. The High Court once again examined the evidence of the eye-witnesses and agreed with the findings of the trial Court.