GOVIND Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction of the appellant dtd. 8/11/2023 [In CRA-D-913-DB-2018 (O&M) passed by High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh] for the charges under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code (in short, IPC) and for Sec. 25 of the Arms Act, 1959. The High Court1 vide impugned judgment affirmed the Trial Court [Additional Sessions Judge, Jhajjar] judgment dtd. 29/8/2018 In Sessions Case No. 39/2016 and also the sentence as directed.

(2.) The prosecution 's case, in brief, was that an incident took place on 12/6/2016 at 6 am in village M.P. Majra of committing murder of Promila (deceased). An FIR was registered at Police Station Beri, Jhajjar, Haryana by her brother Pradeep. The basis of registration of FIR was a vocal telephonic message received from the Control Room of alleged commission of murder by three boys who arrived in an Alto car bearing registration No. HR-13D-0163 and shot the deceased by means of pistol. Upon receiving the said information, Investigating Officer (IO) ASI Jagbir Singh along with Head Constable Parveen, Head Constable Sandeep and Constable Rajesh rushed to the place of occurrence. They found huge congregation on spot where Pradeep @ Pradeep Kumar s/o Om Parkash gave his statement that his deceased sister was married to one Jai Bhagwan who had killed his three children and for the said offence, he was convicted and sentenced. While undergoing jail sentence, he committed suicide in jail. Thereafter, deceased 's mother-in-law Daya Kaur and brother-inlaw (jeth) Ved Prakash did not allow her to step into the matrimonial home and threshed her out. It is said that possession of her house and land was forcefully taken by them, however, they were still having grudge against deceased. It was stated that the deceased succeeded in court case involving the said property and her in-laws were expected to deliver the possession of the house. Therefore, hatching a criminal conspiracy with the help of three young boys, deceased was shot by firearm and succumbed to the injuries. The complainant persuaded the police to register FIR against Daya Kaur, Ved Prakash and three unknown persons who came in the car. He also stated that out of these three unknown persons, he can identify two who came out of car and shot his deceased sister. As such FIR No. 206 of 2016 was registered against Daya Kaur, Ved Prakash and three unknown persons. After five days, on 17/6/2016, Pradeep (PW- 1) gave his supplementary statement and said that pursuant to his own investigation, he came to know that the murder of his sister has been committed by Sanoj @ Sonu s/o Ved Prakash, Amit (son of sister of co-accused Sanoj) and Govind (appellant herein) by using firearm, as such, they were implicated by name.

(3.) On 18/6/2016, the appellant and co-accused Amit were arrested, and as per their disclosure statements, a motorcycle bearing registration No. HR-12-AA-5040 was seized from Amit, while the recovery of country made pistol along with two live cartridges were made from the appellant, respectively. The other co-accused Sanoj @ Sonu was arrested on 4/7/2016 and on his disclosure statement, a car bearing registration No. HR-13D-0163 and pistol kept in the dashboard of the car were recovered. After the investigation, chargesheet was filed on 28/9/2016 only against appellant, co-accused Amit and Sanoj @ Sonu. Daya Kaur (motherin- law) and Ved Prakash (jeth) though named in the FIR, but absolved in the investigation and no chargesheet was filed against them.