LAWS(DLH)-1969-9-18

KUSUM GOSWAMI Vs. MUKHTIAR SINGH

Decided On September 03, 1969
KUSUM GOSWAMI Appellant
V/S
MUKHTIAR SINGH Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal revision is directed against an order made by an Addl. Sessions Judge on 16-8-1966 whereby he acquitted Mukhtiar Singh and Shri Kishan who were charged with the murder of Shri Harish Chander Goswami, a teacher in Babu Ram Government Higher Secondery School Delhi-Shahdara in the morning shift. The two accused were students in the said school. The prosecution case against the accused was that on 29-11-1965 at about 12-45 P.M. they stabbed the deceased with knives while he was passing through Gurdwarawali Gali Shahdara and that as a result of the stab-wounds he died in the Civil Hospital Shahdara at about 1 -15 P.M. on the same day. Dr. G.S. Mittal who conducted the postmortem examination of the deceased in the morning of 30-11-1965 found four stab-wounds on his body, one on the right side of his fore-head, one on the back of his right shoulder, one on his right thigh and the fourth on the back of his chest left side. According to Dr. Mittal, three of the wounds, excepting the one which was on the thigh, were sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature individually as well as collectively.

(2.) According to the First information report which the prosecution alleged had been recorded on the basis of the statement Exhibit P.A. made by Shri Raghunath Sharma (Public Witness I), Raghunath had seen both the accused persons stabbing the deceased with knives. Raghunath stated that he had gone to Bhola Nath Nagar to meet the parents-in-law of his brother who were residing there. He saw both the accused who were already known to him, rapidly going ahead of him. He then saw both of them taking out knives from the pockets of their trousers and stabbing the deceased whose name he came to know later on, near the house of one Raj Kishan resident of that street. After giving stab wounds on the fore-head and other parts of the body of the deceased, both the accused made good their escape taking away the knives with them. He further stated that after the accused had decamped, he with the help of small children who had collected there, put the injured person on the cot and took him to the Civil Hospital Shahdara. Soon thereafter Ram Narain Shastri, Kanhaiya Lal and Virender Kumar, all teachers in Babu Ram Government Higher Secondary School came to the spot. One of them namely, Ram Narian Shastri went to inform the Principal of the shool while the other two went to the hospital to call the doctor. But since the condition of the victim was deteriorating Raghunath removed him to the Civil Hospital before the return of any of the teachers to the spot. At about 1.15 P. M. Shri Harish Chander Goswami was declared dead.

(3.) The prosecution further alleged that soon after the receipt of the information Shri Pyare Lal A.S.I. reached the hospital and recorded the statement of Raghunath (Ex. P.A.) and on the basis of that statement got the case registered against the two accused persons for an offence under section 302 Indian Penal Code . In the Court of Session the charge was amended and an additional charge under section 302 read with section 34 Indian Penal Code . was also added. Both the accused pleaded net guilty. Accused Shri Kishan in his statement under section 342 Criminal Procedure Code stated that he had been involved in the case at the instance of his uncle's son Dal Chand who was a friend of the Station House Officer Shahdara and was inimically disposed towards him. The defence of accused Mukhtiar Singh was that the case aginst him was due to some mis-understanding.