ANIL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant is before us aggrieved by and dissatisfied with a judgment and order dated 6.11.2006 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal No. 372-DB of 2003 and Criminal Revision No. 1475 of 2003 affirming the judgment and order dated 27.03.2003 convicting him for commission of an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 27 of the Arms Act, 1959.

(2.) The family of the appellant and the family of Dinesh (deceased) were residents of the same village. Their houses are intervened only by a road. The deceased and Manjit, brother of the appellant, were studying together in the same college. They were, however, not on speaking terms. Altercations had also taken place between the deceased and the appellant during Panchayat elections. Appellant thereafter had allegedly been threatening him. A First Information Report was lodged by Rajpal Singh, uncle of the deceased to that effect. The wedding of his niece had been fixed on 17.02.2002. The marriage celebrations had been going on. Appellant and Manjit, however, took objections to the singing etc. by the ladies, and they used to threaten them. On that account their festive mood would be turned into grief. On 14.02.2002 at about 8 p.m. Rajpal came out of his house. Appellant accosted him asking why such a noise in the neighbourhood was being made. He ignored him and continued walking. Dharmpal father of the appellant made a remark that it did not matter as he would come back by the same way. He was returning home at about 11 p.m. when Dharmpal caught hold of him. Appellant came at the spot armed with a gun. They started beating him. Rajpal called out for his nephew (Dinesh) and as soon as he opened the door, a shot was fired by the appellant at him. Almesh, another nephew (PW-10) of the first informant was also following Dinesh. He also witnessed the occurrence. Appellant, his father and brother went inside his house. After some time, however, the appellant came out with his brother Manjit and started walking. Dharmpal fired shots in the air.

(3.) Rajpal started proceeding to the police station which was about 11 kms. from the village. On his way, however, he met Satpal Singh Sub- Inspector of Police at about 2.00 a.m. and informed him about the incident. The First Information Report was recorded at about 3.10 a.m.