MANMOHAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are directed against judgment dated 17-4-1994, passed by the Division Bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 247 DB of 1993, arising out of judgment dated 15-6-1993, passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Amritsar in Sessions Case No. 80 of 1989, renumbered as 354 of 1992, and in Criminal Appeal No. 277 SB of 1993, directed against the judgment dated 15-6-1993, passed by the Designated Court convicting the appellant under Section 25 of the Arms Act,

(2.) In connection with the murder of Ratan Kaur in her house on 22-4-1989, at Batala Road in Amritsar accused No. 1 Manmohan Singh the appellant herein and accused No.2 Paranjit Singh were tried before the learned Sessions Judge Amritsar in the said Sessions Case under Sections 302/34 IPC, 454/120B IPC, 120B and 360 IPC. The accused No. 1 Manmohan Singh was also tried before the designated Court for offence under Section 3 of TADA Act and under Section 25 Arms Act, The prosecution case in short is that the deceased Ratan Kaur used to reside in her house at Batala Road, Amritsar with her husband Dewan Singh (P. W. 4) and son Amarjit Singh (P. W. 2). On 22-4-1989, Dewan Singh had gone to village Ghanaake for cultivating wheat crop and Amarjit and Ratan Kaur were in their house. At about 10.00 a. m. the accused Manmohan Singh came to the flour mill which was being run by Paranjit Singh in the ground floor of their house at Amritsar and requested Paranjit to accompany the accused No. 1 to the shop of a gas agency near Bus Stand in order to help him in getting gas connection. Paranjit being busy with his works in flour mill, could not then accompany him. Accused No. 1 again came at 1 p.m. but Paranjit could not go even then. Accused No. 1 again came at about 3 p.m. for the said purpose and Paranjit told accused No. 1 that he would go to gas agency directly after finishing his work and the accused No. 1 Manmohan Singh was directed to go there and wait for him. After some time, Amarjit Singh after closing his flour mill had gone to the said gas agency but he did not see accused No.1 there. After waiting for about an hour at the shop of gas agency, Amarjit returned to his home and found Manmohan Singh coming down by the stairs from the residential portion of their house. The said accused No. 1 appeared to be nervous on seeing Amarjit and on enquiry made by Amarjit as to why he had not gone to the gas agent. Manmohan Singh told him that he got busy with his friends and started eating and drinking with them. Amarjit noticed that Manmohan was then carrying a bundle wrapped in white sheet in his right hand. Amarjit also noticed some blood stains on the said sheet. Manmohan immediately left the place. Amarjit went up stairs and found all articles in their home scattered on the floor. He found his mother Ratan Kaur lying dead on the mattress. A dupatta was found tied around the neck of Ratan Kaur with a knot. Fresh blood was coming out of the injury on the head of Ratan Kaur. A blood stained lock which was put on an iron box was lying near the dead body. Amarjit immediately checked the household articles and found that a revolver of .32 bore bearing No. A 61515 with 16 live cartridges of the same bore were missing. He also found that a sum of Rs. 7,000/-, two gold sets weighing about 9 tolas were missing from the house. Amarjit then came down the stairs by raising alarm that Manmohan has killed his mother and committed theft in their house. Harbhajan Singh was attracted by such shout of Amarjit. Harbhajan Singh was asked by Amarjit to guard his mothers dead body and Amarjit wanted to lodge FIR. On way he met SI Onkar Nath and made the statement which was rendered in writing and Amarjit Singh signed such statement forming FIR (Ext PF) by acknowledging the correctness of the statement.

(3.) The police thereafter visited the spot and prepared inquest report (Ex. PB) and the dead body was sent for post-mortem examination. Dewan Singh reached home and his son Amarjit apprised him of the said incident of murder and theft. Thereafter, Dewan Singh checked up the articles in the house and found that two bangles of gold, two gold todas, two pairs of ear rings, kodak camera, one Rolex wrist watch and his purse containing Rs.1600/- were also missing from the house. On 23-4-1989, post- mortem examination was held by Dr. Sohal (P. W.1) and in his report, he indicated that Ratan Kaur had died due to asphyxia on account of strangulation and she also suffered head injury. When the S. I. Onkar Nath and other police officials were proceeding to Verka bypass from Mitha Chowk for investigation of the case and reached Sun Nallah in village Mustafabad, the accused Manmohan Singh was found coming down the bank of Nallah. Although Manmohan, after seeing the police party, tried to slip away but he was apprehended by the Police and on search of his person, .32 bore revolver bearing No. A 61515 along with two live cartridges (Ext. P. 15, 16 and 17), one camera (Ex. P. 20), one wrist watch (Ext. P-21) and one purse containing Rs. 1600/- (Ext. P-22), currency notes (Ext. P-24/116) and small diary (Ext. P-23) on which the name of Dewan Singh was written, were found. Such articles were seized vide recovery memo (Ext. PR). Surender Singh the Naib Tahsildar held identification of the said seized articles and Dewan Singh identified the said articles. The Naib Tahsildar submitted his report (Ext.PJ).