SUKH CHAIN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants having been convicted for the offence of murder of Subhash sharma punishable under Section 302 of IPC r/w Section 34 of IPC in terms of the impugned judgment dated 13. 09. 1996 and on being sentenced in terms of Order on Sentence of even date to undergo imprisonment for life and also to pay fine of Rs. 1,000/- each and in the event of default of payment of fine to undergo RI for a further period of three months, have preferred the instant appeals.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated the case of the prosecution is that the deceased Subhash sharma was a government employee and with a view to augment his income, he was running a side business of giving rickshaws on hire. One such rickshaw was given on hire by him to the appellant Hargovind on a daily hire charge of rs. 10/ -. The appellant Hargovind is stated to have defaulted in payment of hire charges for 15-20 days. The deceased in the evening of 06. 04. 1991 at around 5 P. M. left his house telling his wife Ms. Kamla PW-10 that he was going in search of the appellant Hargovind to seek payment of the hire charges. He, however, returned back after a futile search and again left the house in search of Hargovind at around 9 P. M. and thereafter he did not return. Therefore, on 07. 04. 91, a missing report Expw16/a was lodged at Police Station civil Lines. On 09. 04. 1991 at around 9. 45 P. M. , a dead body was found near gutter no. 3, in the bushes of Ring Road, Yamuna Bank, Chandrawal. This information was conveyed to the police station and it was recorded as DD No. 10. A copy of the DD report was entrusted to PW21 SI Rajender Singh for verification, who left for the spot where he found a highly decomposed dead body of a male person. PW21 SI rajinder Singh suspected the dead body to be that of the missing person subhash Sharma. He accordingly sent Constable Jai Bhagwan to deceased's house who brought father of the deceased Mr. Satya Prakash and his brother Sarvottam sharma, who identified the dead body of the deceased Subhash Sharma. During investigation, statement of witnesses were recorded and on the basis of statement of Ms. Kamla PW-10, wife of the deceased Subhash Sharma, the needle of suspicion pointed towards the appellant Hargovind and as such, police party searched for him. Appellants were arrested on 11. 04. 1991. On questioning, the appellants stated that at the time of occurrence also they were wearing the same clothes, but on cursory examination some old washed blood stains were noticed on the clothes, as such the clothes of the appellants were seized vide seizure memo Ex. PW2/g. Appellant Hargovind on interrogation made a disclosure statement and pursuant to that he led the police party to a heap of bricks near a latrine near Magazine Road, Hathi Wala Park, Chandrawal and from there, he took out a closed knife Ex. P- 1 after removing the bricks. Sketch of the knife was prepared and it was taken into possession vide memo Ex. PW2/f. The incriminating exhibits were sent to CFSL for serological examination along with the blood-stained clothes of the deceased as also blood-stained vegetation seized from the spot and the cloth gauze and blood sample of the deceased. As per the CFSL report, the clothes of the appellants were found to contain the blood stains of human blood group 'b'. So far as the clothes of the deceased and his blood sample taken on a cloth gauze as well as blood stained vegetation seized from the spot is concerned, those samples tested positive for human blood but the blood group could not be ascertained. The dead body was sent for post mortem and as per the post mortem report, the cause of death was hemorrhage and shock consequent to a cut-throat injury. PW-13 Dr. L. T. Ramani opined that the said injury could have been caused by knife Exp-1 or any other similar knife. On completion of investigation, the appellants were charge sheeted and sent for trial for the offence punishable under Section 302/34 of IPC. Both the appellants pleaded innocence and claimed trial.

(3.) IN order to bring home the guilt of the appellants, the prosecution has examined 21 witnesses in all. However, the main witnesses examined by the prosecution are PW-1 Satya Parkash Sharma, PW-2 Sarvotam Sharma, PW-10 smt. Kamla and PW-18 Kishan Lal besides PW-13 Dr. L. T. Ramani who conducted the post mortem and the investigating officers. The appellants, in their statements recorded under Section 313 Cr. P. C. , denied having played any role whatsoever in the murder of the deceased.