MOHINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the High Court of Punjab in Criminal Appeal No. 19 of 1961 and Murder Reference No. 4 of 1961 decided on February 17, 1961. The appellant Mohinder Singh has been convicted under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. Originally, three others were tried with him but they were acquitted by the Court of Session. Mohinder Singh was sentenced by the Court of Session to death, but on appeal the High Court altered the sentence to one of rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) Mohinder Singh, who is a jat, had contracted illicit intimacy with one Mst. Puro a Mazhbi woman who was abandoned by her husband. He used to visit her at her house and this was resented by the other Mazhbis including some of her relations. These persons did not object to Mohinder Singh as such but only insisted that he should marry Mst. Puro and make the connection legal. This Mohinder Singh was unwilling to do, because he was of a higher status.

(3.) The case of the prosecution is that on April 12, 1960, in the evening, Mohinder Singh, riding a mare, was on his way to the locality of the Mazhbis and was accompanied by the other three original accused who have since been acquitted. On the precincts of the locality some Mazhbis (Dula Singh, Hazara Singh, Resham Singh, Inder Singh and Khushia) accosted him. Mohinder Singh challenged them to stop him and drawing a country made pistol fired at Dula Singh who dropped down dead. He fired a second shot at the others, this time wounding Khushia, Inder Singh and Resham Singh. Mohinder Singh then fired a third shot and wounded two others Sulakhan Singh and Narain Singh who were not with the first party of the Mazhbis but were immediately behind them. Thereafter, Mohinder Singh and his companions ran away.