PHOOL CHAND Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is regular appeal under S.379, Cr.P.C. read with S. 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act. The three appellants, Phool Chand, Mool Chand and Narain along with eight others were tried for offences punishable under Ss. 302/149 and 147 etc. The trial Court acquitted all of them except Narain, the third appellant herein. He was convicted under S. 324 and sentenced to undergo three years R.I. He preferred an appeal to the High Court and the State and the State also preferred an appeal against all the accused including Narain in respect of their acquittal of the charge of murder. The High Court while confirming the acquittal of eight other convicted the three appellants herein under S. 302/34, I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to undergo imprisonment for life. Hence the present appeal.

(2.) The prosecution case is as follows. In Village Chisan, at a certain time, which was in the Muafi of Baldev Singh, fields of some of the accused persons and of deceased Baldev Singh are situated. There was some dispute between Ramlal and the accused on the one hand and the deceased on the other, relating to a piece of land. A few days prior to the present occurrence, the accused party wanted to harvest the crop but the deceased Baldev Singh did not allow them to do so. On 1-12-72 at about 11 a.m. the accused party and the labourers were harvesting the crop in the disputed land. Second deceased Narender Singh son of Baldev Singh arrived with a gun. He asked the accused persons and the labourers not to harvest the crop. Then Narain, one of the appellants herein, snatched away the gun from Narender Singh and when he and the other accused persons were taking Narender Singh and his gun to Police Station Sultanpur, it is alleged that near milestone at mile No. 24, Narain and the other accused were waiting for a bus and at that time the first deceased Baldev Singh, father of Narender Singh, the second deceased came on a motor cycle. Seeing him Narender Singh ran towards him and Narain, who was armed with a gun, shot twice at him. When Baldev Singh intervened, he too was beaten by all the accused. The accused gave indiscriminate beating to both the deceased and they were dragged to a nearby field and when they died as a result of the injuries, the accused made good their escape. P.Ws. 2 and 14 saw the incident of the gun being snatched away by Narain. The actual occurrence was witnessed by P.W. 11, the real brother of first deceased Baldev Singh and uncle of the second deceased Narender Singh while going to his fields along with P.W. 13. When the accused went away, P.W. 11 went to the Police Station, Sultanpur, 14 miles away and lodged a report. The case was registered and since S.H.O. was not there, a police constable reached the place where dead bodies were lying and after holding the inquest the dead bodies were sent for post-mortem. P.W. 15, the Doctor came on the spot and conducted the autopsy. He found a number of injuries on vital organs on the body of the first deceased Baldev Singh and he also found that skull was fractured and brain matter also was lacerated. Similarly on Narender Singh, the second accused he found a number of injuries and also gun-shot injuries. The accused were arrested. On Narain, the same Doctor found three lacerated wounds on the right eyebrow, forehead and frontal bone. At the instance of the accused, various weapons were recovered. The accused were put up for identification parade and some of the witnesses identified them. In their statement under S.313, Cr.P.C. the accused denied the offence. Narain, however, pleaded that when he was cutting the harvest, the second deceased Narender Singh came with a gun and also shot at him. But he managed to escape and snatched away the gun from him and he went and produced the gun in the police station. He also stated that Baldev Singh struck stone on his head by which he received injuries. This version was not accepted by the courts below.

(3.) P.W. 11, the brother of the first deceased who gave the F.I.R. also gave evidence but the courts below were not prepared to place reliance on his evidence. The High Court, however, mainly relied on the evidence of P.W. 6, Bhanwarlal. The High Court after discussing the evidence of P.W. 6 pointed that there are no material infirmities in his statement and that the dead bodies were found in the fields of Khema Lashkari, who was the grandfather of P.W. 6. The High Court also pointed out that his evidence is corroborated by P.Ws. 2 and 14.