GURCHARAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In assailment is the judgement and order dated 17.12.2014 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal No. S-566-SB of 2004, affirming the conviction of the appellant and co-accused Sukhvinder Singh under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter to be referred to as "IPC"), as entered by the Trial Court. While by the decision impugned, the conviction has been endorsed, the substantive sentence of six years of rigorous imprisonment awarded by the Trial Court to each of the accused persons has been scaled down to one of five years of the same description. The instant appeal seeks to overturn the concurrent determinations on the charge by the courts below.

(2.) We have heard Ms. Kawaljit Kochar, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. V. Madhukar, learned counsel for the respondent.

(3.) The fascicule of facts, indispensable to comprehend the backdrop of the prosecution, has its origin in the inexplicable abandonment of the deceased Surjit Kaur and her two daughters namely; Geet Pahul and Preet Pahul by Dr. Jaspal Singh, their husband and father respectively, about two years prior to the tragic end of his three family members as above. The prosecution version is that Dr. Jaspal Singh, who was initially in the Government service, had relinquished the same and started a coal factory at Muktsar. He suffered loss in the business and consequently failed to repay the loan availed by him in this regard from the bank. As he and his brother Gurcharan Singh (appellant herein) and others succeeded to the property left by their predecessors, he started medical practice in private.