KRISHAN Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is accused no.2, who, along with accused no.1 - Mahesh, was convicted for the offences punishable under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short IPC) and Sec. 25 of the Arms Act. The appellant and the co-accused were ordered to undergo life imprisonment for the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of the IPC. The conviction and sentence of the appellant have been confirmed by the High Court by the impugned judgment.

(2.) It is a case of the murder of Pawan and Ajju Chaudhary. According to the prosecution case, on 03rd of January 2004, the deceased Pawan went to Rohini to meet his ailing sister Sushila. Dharmender (PW-2) is the complainant. Dharmender is the brother of the deceased Pawan. According to Dharmender, the deceased Pawan had fallen into bad company and cases of dacoity and theft were registered against him. He stated that on 4/1/2004, he enquired with his sister, who told him that the deceased Pawan had returned after meeting her. According to Dharmender, around 09:00 a.m. on 5/1/2004, he was informed by someone that his brother Pawan had been shot dead. Thereafter, the bodies of both the deceased were found by the police.

(3.) The prosecution examined a total of 20 witnesses. The prosecution relied upon the evidence of PW-1 - Mukesh and PW-3 - Vijender as they were allegedly the eyewitnesses. Dharmender (PW-2) was also examined. The other two material witnesses are PW-15 Sub-inspector Desh Raj and PW-20 DSP Puran Chand. At the relevant time, PW-20 was the Investigating Officer. Both the witnesses are relevant on the issue of recovery of the weapon of the offence at the appellant's instance, as there are no independent witnesses to the recovery. According to the case of the prosecution, the report of the ballistic expert showed that the bullets recovered from the body of the deceased Pawan were fired from the country-made pistol, which was recovered at the instance of the appellant.