PARAMJIT SINGH ALIAS BITTOO Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants were convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge vide judgment dated 21st January, 1997 for murdering one Vijay and causing injuries to his brother PW-11 Vinod Kumar in an incident which took place on 22nd March, 1992 and vide order dated 24th January, 1997 they were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life for the offence of murder and to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years for their conviction under Section 324/34 IPC. Accused-appellant Paramjit Singh was further convicted under Section 27 of the Arms Act also and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/-, in default of payment to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one month. Out of the three convicted accused, who are brothers, two accused, namely, Ravinder Singh @ Chotu and Rajinder Singh @ Shanty filed a joint appeal (being criminal appeal no. 141/1997) while their brother Paramjit Singh challenged the trial Courts judgment by filing a separate appeal (being criminal appeal no. 140/1997).

(2.) DURING the pendency of these appeals appellants Ravinder Singh and Rajinder Singh after getting interim bail for some period did not surrender and so the trial Court declared them as proclaimed offenders. Their counsel also did not appear to argue their appeal when the same was taken up for hearing along with the appeal of their co-convict and brother Paramjit Singh and since the counsel for accused-appellant Paramjit Singh had appeared to argue his appeal we did not consider it necessary to appoint an amicus curiae for the unrepresented absconding appellants we have ourselves examined the prosecution case qua both of them also to find out whether their appeal deserves to be accepted or rejected. This is the course of action which we were expected to adopt even as per the decision of the Supreme Court in "Bani Singh vs State of U.P.", AIR 1996 SC 2439.

(3.) ACCUSED Paramjit Singh was arrested on 24th March 1992 and while in police custody he made a disclosure statement and pursuant thereto got recovered the weapon of offence which as per the prosecution case was used by him in the commission of murder of the deceased Vijay. The knife was got recovered from a park at the cremation ground in Beri Wala Bagh and on chemical analysis blood of ,,A group, which was the blood group of the deceased, was found. Since the shirt which accused Paramjit Singh was wearing at the time of his arrest had one button missing and pocket was torn, the same was seized by the investigating officer. That was done since the police had found one button and a piece of cloth from the scene of occurrence when it had reached there. The button and piece of cloth were found by the experts at the Central Forensic Laboratory to be of the shirt of this accused which was seized by the police. Thereafter, other two accused were also arrested.