CHARAN SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Charan Singh and Narayan Singh, two real brothers, appellants herein are aggrieved of their conviction and sentence passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge on 16th of September, 1987. They were sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 302 Indian Penal Code . with the aid of Section 34 Indian Penal Code . and were also sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment and the payment of Rs.3000.00 as fine each under Section 435 Indian Penal Code ., in default they are required to undergo six months rigorous imprisonment each. Both the sentence were, however, made to run concurrently.

(2.) The date of incident is 18th of February, 1983 at 3 A.M. The F.I.R. was recorded pursuant to a statement Ex. Public Witness 5/A made by the deceased Prem Kumar before Shri Jage Ram A.S.I. Public Witness . 17 in the hospital where he was admitted by his wife Mrs, Ranjana Kumari. The brief background is that the deceased was residing as a tenant in the house of the father of the appellants situated in Gali Harijan, Chopal, village Dhirpur. The appellants wanted the deceased to vacate the premises and with a view to force him to vacate the house, they occasionally picked up quarrels with him. The prosecution case is that since the deceased did not listen to them they in prosecution of their common intention came with petrol to the place of incident where the deceased was sleeping in his three-wheeler scooter. They are stated to have been accompanied by 3-4 unknown persons and after sprinkling petrol on the deceased they set him on fire resulting in 40% burns on the person of the deceased. The scooter also got burnt. The deceased is stated to have identified the appellants but could not identify other persons who were accompanying them

(3.) The deceased died due to toxaemia and scepticaemia as a result of these burns. This fact is proved by Dr. O.K. Sharma Public Witness . 20. We need not refer to the details of his testimony as neither the injuries sustained by the deceased nor the cause of the death is in dispute.