HEM RAJ Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The four appellants herein who are brothers faced trial before the Additional Sessions Judge-I, Jind for murdering one Hemant Kumar at a central place in Safidon town, on the night of 3-4-1996 at about 8.45 p.m. They were convicted under S. 302, I.P.C. and sentenced to life imprisonment. The High Court dismissed the appeals filed by the accused. Hence, these appeals by special leave.

(2.) The following is a brief account of the prosecution case and other relevant facts : On the night of 3rd April, 1996, all the accused attacked Hemant Kumar at Channi Chowk and stabbed him with knives. As a result of stabbing, he received six injuries out of which two were in the chest region. The fatal assault by the four accused was seen by the younger brother of deceased P.W. 4, who was returning home from his watch repair shop. On being informed by a passer-by on a bicycle, P.W. 4 rushed to the spot and having noticed from a distance of 30 ft. or so that the attack on the deceased was going on, he raised an alarm. Hearing the cries, P.W. 5 another relation of the deceased and one Kapoor Singh who were at a nearby sweet shop joined P.W. 4. On seeing all of them, the accused fled. According to P.Ws. 4 and 5, three accused carried knives and the accused, namely, Kala carried Neja (which resembles knife). The injured person fell down on the spot and he was taken on a cot to the Civil Hospital, Safidon by the aforementioned three persons. At the hospital, the doctor (not examined) declared him dead. The same doctor sent a rucca (memo) to the Police Station, Safidon at about 9.50 p.m. The Sub-Inspector of Police P.W. 9 was going on a jeep by the side of the hospital. The Ward Boy of the hospital handed over the rucca to him. P.W. 9 then came to the hospital and after sometime, recorded the statement of P.W. 4 at the hospital. He sent the same to the Police Station, on the basis of which an FIR was recorded at 11.30 p.m., for an offence under S. 302 read with S. 34, I.P.C. Copy was sent to the Judicial Magistrate through a Constable and it reached him at about 1.00 a.m. In the said statement given to the police, P.W. 4 named the four accused as the assailants. P.W. 9 held the inquest over the dead body in the hospital and sent the dead body for post-mortem. The Medical Officer attached to the General Hospital, Jind did the post-mortem examination at 9.15 a.m. on 4-4-1996 and prepared the post-mortem report which is Ex. PA. P.W. 9 could go to the scene of occurrence at about 2.30 a.m. The delay was for the reason that he tried to stop a reprisal attack by a mob to set fire to the houses of the accused. He prepared a site plan. One Gobind Das produced all the four accused persons involved in the offence in the night of 4-4-1996 before P.W. 9 while he was at Court Road Chowk. They were arrested and immediately thereafter, the accused-Kala produced a knife (Ex. P1). The total length of that knife was 8 inches inclusive of 4" of handle and the width of the blade was about 0.2 to 0.3 cms. P.W. 10 Inspector of Police, CIA, was entrusted with investigation from 6-4-1996 onwards. He recorded the statements of some witnesses. He applied for judicial remand of the arrested accused. On the same day, P.W. 10 took the knife seized from Kala to the Medical Officer P.W. 1, who endorsed on the post-mortem report that the injuries could be inflicted by that knife. On the basis of his investigation, P.W. 10 found that the accused other than Kala were innocent. Therefore, in the report under S. 173, Cr. P.C. only Kala was shown as the accused for the offence punishable under S. 302, I.P.C. However, all the four accused persons were committed to Sessions. After examining the record, the learned Judge found that there was a prima facie case to proceed against all the accused. Accordingly, the charge was framed against all the accused under S. 302, I.P.C. Curiously, S. 34 was omitted in the charge. On the basis of the evidence of the eye-witnesses, namely, P.Ws. 4 and 5, the accused were convicted under S. 302, I.P.C.

(3.) The motive of the accused is traced to an incident which had happened one and a half years earlier when the deceased-Hemant Kumar identified the accused as the persons involved in the kidnapping of the daughter of one Niranjan Das. However, the motive was held to be not proved by the trial Court. The High Court did not hold to the contra.