DIDAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will dispose of S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 2505 of 1990 filed by Didar Singh and S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 621 of 1992 filed by Satnam Singh son of Fauja Singh and Avtar Singh son of Anup Singh. Special leave granted in both the petitions.

(2.) ALL the three were convicted by order of the Additional Sessions Judge, Kamal, dated 24th February, 1988 under section 302 read with section 34, Indian Penal Code and were sentenced by a separate order of the same date for imprisonment for life. During trial Didar Singh, appellant, was on bail. All the three filed a criminal appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and a Division Bench of the High Court by the Impugned judgment dated 7th May, 1990 retained the conviction and sentence of all the three and dismissed the appeal. The case was based on the circumstantial evidence as there was no direct evidence of the eye witnesses in the case. The High Court classified the circumstantial evidence into four parts as under : -

(3.) THE further case in the F.I.R. was that Kidar Singh had sold his he -buffalo to Satnam Singh for Rs. 1,100/ - and this money had not been paid by Satnam to Kidar. A day earlier to the F.I.R. i.e. the day of incident, the appellants Satnam Singh and Avatar Singh had come to the house of the deceased. He was present at his own house. Reaching the house of Kidar, appellants Satnam Singh and Avtar Singh asked him to accompany them to their dera to which his brother agreed but he did not come back to his house. The next day, after waiting for Kidar, he alongwith one Maha Singh, started searching Kidar at about 11.00/11.15 a.m. On the way, Multan Singh Sarpanch and Om Parkash, P.Ws. 3 and 6 met them and informed them that they had heard a noiseatabout8.00/8.15 p.m at the dera of Satnam Singh and had seen the deceased being beaten by Satnam, Didar and Avtar. On this information he reached the dera of Fauja Singh and saw the dead body of Kidar lying on a cot in the room. It will thus be noticed that so Far as the statements of P.W. 3 and P.W. 6, who are eye witnesses, are concerned, they were corroborated by the statement of Attar Singh, who had seen Hie deceased accompanying Satnam Singh and Avtar Singh. The only evidence against Didar Singh is that at 8.00/8.15 p.m. in moonlit night the two witnesses spotted Didar Singh alongwith two other appellants giving beating to Kidar.