STATE OF DELHI ADMINISTRATION Vs. NARAIN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is preferred by the State against the judgment dated 03-06- 1989 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi in Sessions case No. 440/1988 arising out of FIR No. 200/1984 pertaining to police station Narela whereby all the four accused persons, who are now the respondents in this appeal and were tried for the offences under Sections 302 read with Section 34 IPC, Section 452 read with Section 34 IPC, Section 324 read with Section 34 IPC and Section 323 read with Section 34 IPC have been acquitted of all these charges.

(2.) The prosecution case against the four acquitted accused Narain Singh, Ram Chander, Attar Singh and Smt. Phulo @ Phulwati was that they had killed Karan Singh who was the brother of accused Attar Singh, Narain Singh and PW-10 Amar Singh. These four brothers had some ancestral properties in village Jathkore in Delhi and a family partition had taken place. However, accused Attar Singh and Narain Singh were not satisfied with that family partition and because of that their relations with their brother Karan Singh were strained. PW-10 Amar Singh was married but had no issue. He along with his wife was living with the deceased Karan Singh. Wives of Karan Singh and Amar Singh are sisters. Accused Attar Singh and Narain Singh apprehended that Amar Singh would give his properties to his brother Karan Singh or his children and so they had a grudge against Karan Singh. It is the further prosecution case that on 28.08.1984 at about 5.30 p.m. when Karan Singh (the deceased) was going to take bath in the courtyard(bagar) of his house accused Narain Singh armed with a two pronged jelly, accused Attar Singh armed with a lathi, accused Ram Chander, who is the brother-in-law of accused Narain Singh, also armed with a lathi and Narain Singh"s wife Smt. Phulo carrying a gandasi came out of their house to the courtyard of Karan Singh and at that time accused Narain Singh told Karan Singh "aaj Amar Singh ki jaidaad day detain hain" (they would give him property of Amar Singh that day) and saying so accused Narain Singh gave a jelly blow on the chest of Karan Singh upon which Karan Singh went inside his room. Accused Attar Singh and Ram Chander followed him inside where Attar Singh gave a lathi blow on the right shoulder of Karan Singh, accused Ram Chander gave a lathi blow on his right hip. Then Karan Singh came out of the room towards the "sehan" when accused Phulo gave two gandasi blows on the head of Karan Singh. When PW- 10 Amar Singh, his wife Smt. Chameli(PW-13), Karan Singh"s wife Dhanpati(PW-14) and Karan Singh"s daughter Omwati(PW-15) tried to intervene and save Karan Singh, accused Attar Singh and Ram Chander gave lathi blows to Chameli and Ram Chander gave a lathi blow on the knee of Smt. Dhanpati also. Attar Singh hit on the leg of PW-10 Amar Singh with his lathi and Ram Chander gave a lathi blow on his shoulder. Narain Singh gave a jelly blow on the right hand of Amar Singh. Karan Singh died at the spot itself and all the accused persons fled away from there. Accused Phulo threw her gandasi in the bagaar before going away from there. On being informed of the incident the police came to the place of occurrence. PW-10 Amar Singh gave his statement Ex. PW-10/A in which he narrated the afore-said facts. The investigating officer(PW-20) seized the blood stained gandasi(Ex. P-1) from the spot and also held inquest proceedings. FIR No. 200/84 was registered at 9 p.m. same day. The police arrested all the four accused persons and after completing the usual investigation it filed a charge-sheet against all of them in the court. After the committal of the case to Sessions Court all the four accused were charged under Sections 452/34 IPC, 323/34 IPC, 324/34 IPC and 302/34 IPC. All the accused had pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

(3.) The prosecution examined 20 witnesses for establishing its case against the accused persons. In their statements recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. the accused persons denied the prosecution allegations in toto and alleged false implication. Regarding the partition of properties accused Attar Singh claimed that he had got his share in the land and other properties but the other three brothers had remained joint and no partition had taken place between them. He admitted that Narain Singh was also living along with Amar Singh and Karan Singh. He pleaded that his brother Amar Singh was a characterless man and that once when his two sons had fallen ill Amar Singh, in his absence, had not given proper medicine to them and, therefore, they died. He also claimed that once Amar Singh had tried to molest his wife in his absence and on that account she had become a TB patient and later on died and when he remarried Amar Singh started harassing his second wife also and on that account he (Attar Singh) had separated. He further claimed that the wife of Amar Singh also used to cut the hair of his children many times and for all these reasons the witnesses had deposed falsely. Another plea taken by him was that in 1972 he had purchased a plot with his own money and he constructed the house thereon also with his own funds but that house was in the name of all the brothers and he was not given any share on partition in that house. Accused Ram Chander claimed that at the time of alleged incident he was, in fact, on duty at Faridabad and from his place of work he had gone straight to his house which was also in Faridabad. He was on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on 28-8-84 and it takes about 2 and 2 " hours to reach village Jathkore(where the deceased was living) from Faridabad. Accused Phulo admitted that Attar Singh, Karan Singh, Narain Singh and Amar Singh were having agricultural land in village Jatkore and also that Amar Singh was the eldest brother and had no issue. She also claimed that the families of Karan Singh, Narain Singh and Amar Singh were living jointly while Attar Singh had already separated. On the day of incident she was inside her room along with her son who was hardly 20 or 25 days old at that time and so she was not aware of the incident as was being claimed by the witnesses. Accused Narain Singh has claimed that he was working at the shop of Dr. Sumer Singh in Peeragarhi those days and he used to go their in the morning and come back in the evening and at the time of the alleged incident he was not present at the place of occurrence.