SUNITA SHARMA AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted. The challenge in these appeals is against the judgment and order dated 28th January, 2014 passed by the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi passed in Criminal Appeal No. 458 of 1998 whereby the order of conviction of the accused Appellants Under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as "Indian Penal Code") made by the learned trial Court has been upheld and they have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with fine of Rs. 2,000/-. The accused Appellants have also been convicted for commission of offences punishable Under Section 324/34 and 323/34 Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and one month respectively.

(2.) The incident took place on 14th February, 1993. The trial lasted five years and the appeal against the order of conviction was filed sometime in the year 1998. The appeal dragged on for 16 years and was concluded by the impugned order on 28th January, 2014. In the meantime, for most of the period, the accused had remained on bail. The above facts have been noticed by the Court only for the purpose of perceiving how the system has moved and the need to devise ways and means of expeditious hearing of such matters.

(3.) The prosecution case centres round the evidence of PW-1 - Jagdish Lal, who is the uncle of the deceased; PW-2 - Kuldeep Raj the father of the deceased; and PW-5 - Chanchal, the mother of the deceased. Another alleged witness PW-16 - Pawan Kumar, the cousin of the deceased has turned hostile. PW-2 - Kuldeep Raj and PW-5 - Chanchal had also been injured in the course of the incident. The defence insofar as the accused Sunita Sharma is based is based upon a plea of alibi. The said accused has set up the plea that on the relevant date i.e. 14th February, 1993 she was away in Jalandhar attending a marriage and it is only on 15th February, 1993, on getting the news of her husband's arrest in connection with the aforesaid incident, that she came back to Delhi. The defence has also examined DW-1 - Surinder Kumar, uncle of the accused Sunita Sharma. DW-2 - Raghunath the father of accused Sunita Sharma and DW-3 Meenakshi Sharma, the daughter of accused Sunita Sharma, inter alia, to prove the plea of alibi set up by the accused Sunita Sharma.