RANJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been preferred under S. 2(a) of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970 against the judgment and order dated October 16, 1981 passed by the High Court of judicature of Bombay at Aurangabad in Criminal Appeal No. 498 of 1978. The said Criminal Appeal No. 498 of 1978 arose out of the Judgment and order of acquittal of seven accused persons including the appellant, Ranjit Singh, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Aurangabad in Sessions Case No. 3 of 1976. Seven accused persons including the appellant, Ranjit Singh, were committed to sessions trial under Ss. 147, 148, 452, 302, 307 and 323 read with S. 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution case in short was that the deceased, Nasirkhan, was residing in a house in a locality known as Ghati Zopadpatty at Aurangabad along with his brothers, mother And sisters. The said deceased, Nasirkhan, was a mason by vocation and his brother, Jalilkhan (P.W. No. 1), was a carpenter and the other brother, Shakilkhan (P.W. No. 2), was also staying with the deceased. Nadirabi (P.W. 25), a sister of the deceased, was also residing in the said house along with the other family members. The appellant, Ranjit Singh, accused No. 1, and the accused No. 2, lqbal Singh, are true brothers residing in the same locality at a distance of about one furlong away from the said wada where the deceased and family members used to reside. P.W. 1 Jalilkhan, got a contract of some carpentry work with accused Nos. 1 and 2, and in connection with the said carpentry work some masonry work was also required to be carried out for which a bag of cement was required. Accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh paid Rs. 20/ - to P.W. No. 1, Jalilkhan, for getting a cement bag but Jalilkhan could not procure the cement bag. Such fact was reported by him to Accused No. 1 and Jalilkhan wanted to return the said amount of Rs. 20/ -. It is the prosecution case that accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh, insisted that a bag of cement should be given to him, otherwise an amount of Rs.80/- should be paid. On the fateful day i.e. August 29, 1975, accused No. 1 visited the wada of deceased at about 10-30 p.m. and insisted for payment of Rs. 80/- P.W. 1 and his brother, Nasirkhan, the deceased, met accused No. 1 on the road in front of their wada. The accused No. 1 abused them filthily and demanded payment of Rs. 80 / - but Jalilkhan refused to make such payment. The accused No. 1 thereafter threatened Jalikhan and Nasirkhan. At about 11-30 p.m.on the same day, accused No. 1 along with seven or eight persons came to the wada of the deceased, and knocked at the door. The mother of the deceased, Jaitunbi (P.W.4) asked her son, P.W. 2 Shakilkhan, to find out as to who was knocking the door. Shakilkhan opened the front side door and saw accused No. 1 standing in front of the door of the wada. Immediately thereafter, accused No. 1, started abusing and assaulting P.W. 2. Shakilkhan shouted that he was being assaulted by accused No. 1 and on hearing such shouts from Shakilkhan, P.W. 1, Jalilkhan, rushed to the place and he was also assaulted. Thereafter, accused No. 1 entered the courtyard of the wada and along with him seven other persons also entered the said wada and when Jaitunbi, P.W. 4, came out of her room and was going to her sons, she was given a hockey stick blow on her head by accused No. 4. At that stage, the deceased, Nasirkhan, came out. Accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh, seeing Nasirkhan coming to the courtyard rushed towards him and inflicted a knife injury on the left side of the chest and Nasir- khan fell down. Jalilkhan (P.W. 1) also received four stab injuries and also hockey stick blows on his person. Thus Jalilkhan (P.W. No. 1) Shakilkhan (P.W. 2) Jaitunbi (P.W. 4) and the deceased received injuries at the hands of these persons . After causing such injuries, the said persons left the place. It is the prosecution case that Sheikh Hussain, P.W. 5, who is a tenant in the adjoining room to the North, came out and had witnessed the incident of assault. One Sheikh Bashir (P.W. 7) had also seen the, accused persons running away from the wada of the deceased. Jalilkhan came out of the wada in order to report the matter to the police station. He tried to hire a rickshaw. But the rickshaw drivers seeing the bleeding injury on his person, were not willing to take him. Therefore, Jalikhan went to the house of P.W. 13, Hamidkhan and requested him to take Jalil- khan to the City Chowk Police Station on his motor-cycle. On being taken by the motor- cycle, Jalilkhan narrated the incident to the Sub-Inspector, Madhav Shetkar (P.W. 24) and the said police Sub-Inspector reduced in writing the narration given by Jalilkhan but having noticed that blood was coming out from the wounds received by Jalilkhan, he stopped further writing of the narration and decided to take Jalilkhan and other members of his family to the hospital. The said police Sub-Inspector, thereafter, came to the wada of the deceased and collected all the injured persons and straightway went to the Medical College Hospital, Aurangabad where Dr. Sardarsingh Shevgan (P.W. 9) was Incharge of the casualty ward. He examined the injured persons. He made an entry in the medico-legal case register in respect of Nasir- khan which is Exh. No. 38-A. Jalilkhan was also examined and his injury certificate is Exh. 39. Similarly, Jaitunbi was also examined and her injury certificate is Exh. 40. Shakilkhan (P.W. 2) was examined by an other doctor namely, Dr. Hansraj Vaidya (P.W. 8) and his injury certificate is Exh. 36. Dr. Shevgan examined Nasirkhan and found him dead. Accordingly, a report was made in the register. Later on accused Nos. 1 and 2 were taken by the police to the hospital for the medical examination as injuries were found on their persons. Dr. Shevgan examined them and issued injury certificates being Exh. No. 81 in respect of Iqbal Singh and Exh. No. 82 in respect of accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh. The police Sub-Inspector, Madhav Shetkar, completed the formalities of the first information report in the hospital and handed over the said first information report to the police constable, Laxman Mante, who lodged the report to the police station. On the basis of the said complaint, an offence was registered by the Police Station Officer, Narayan Mukhindrao (P.W.18). The investigation was taken up and statements of various witnesses including the statements of Jaitunbi, Nadirabi, Sheikh Hussain, Shakilkhan and others were recorded. At the scene of offence, two hockey sticks which were collected by Shakilkhan were also seized. One cement concrete stone of 21/2 kgs. with human blood, six pieces of bangles and the earth mixed with blood were also collected by the police. The police also seized the clothes of Jalilkhan stained with blood. Similarly, the clothes of the deceased were also seized. At the instance of accused No. 2, Iqbal Singh, the hockey stick was recovered and later on, on the basis of the statement made by him, a knife was also recovered. It is the prosecution case that on the basis of the statement made by the accused No. 1, a knife was recovered and the panchnama, Exh. No. 59, for such recovery was prepared. Identification parades were held on September 27, 1975 and panchanamas being Exts. Nos. 26 to 31 were prepared on account of such identification parade. In view of the injuries suffered by Jalilkhan (P.W.1) the doctor advised to record his dying declaration. Accordingly, the Executive Magistrate, Mr. Nelson (P.W. 28) recorded the dying declaration of Jalilkhan on August 30, 1975 being Exh. 99.

(2.) The learned Additional Sessions Judge inter alia came to the finding that the investigation carried out by the police Sub Inspector was not only unsatisfactory but the same was lacking in honesty and straightforwardness and the first information report (Exh. 15) was not recorded on August 29, 1975 but it was prepared subsequently. The learned Additional Sessions Judge was also of the view that the identification parade was held after a long lapse of time and no reliance should be placed on such identification parade. He had also come to the finding that there were material discrepancies in the evidences of the alleged eye-witnesses and the prosecution case was not established beyond all reasonable doubts. In that view of the matter, the learned Additional Sessions Judge acquitted all the accused persons.

(3.) The State of Maharashtra, thereafter, preferred an appeal against the said judgment and order of acquittal before the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court. The High Court allowed the appeal so far as the accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh, is concerned but dismissed the appeal in respect of the other accused persons by affirming the order of acquittal passed in their favour. The High Court was of the view that the case of the prosecution against the accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh, for murdering Nasirkhan was proved beyond all reasonable doubts and the order of acquittal was not justified and was passed against the weight of the evidence adduced in the case. The High Court, therefore, convicted accused No. 1, Ranjit Singh, namely, the appellant under S. 302, IPC and sentenced him for life imprisonment. As aforesaid, such conviction and sentence of the appellant is under challenge in the instant appeal.