PHUL KUMAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of the following facts :

(2.) Madan Lal - since deceased, a resident of Sunam, left his business premises on 15th Feb., 1992 at about 6 a.m. His dead body in a decomposed condition was recovered from the Dhansu canal minor within the jurisdiction of Police Station, Hissar. The dead body was cremated by the Municipal Authorities as an unclaimed one. The accused being an employee of the deceased was arrested and charged for having committed his murder. The prosecution case as set out was that the accused had been employed at the shop of the deceased 7 or 8 years earlier. On 3rd Nov., 1991, the accused took a loan of Rs. 15,000.00 from the deceased and executed a pronote and a receipt Exs. PW7/A and PW7B respectively in token of having received the aforesaid amount. The deceased demanded the amount from the accused repeatedly and was ultimately told that he would arrange the money from his brother-in-law, who was residing in Haryana. On 15th March, 1992, at about 6.a.m, the accused took the deceased from his shop on the pretext that he was taking him to Babbanpur in Haryana for securing the cash to repay the loan. Before they boarded the bus at about 7 a.m. on the same day, they met Sat Pal - PW 5 and they told him that they were going to Haryana for securing the repayment of the loan. The accused, however, came back to Sunam after 20/25 days and on an enquiry made by Satish Kumar-PW 4 son of the deceased, told him that the deceased had gone to see some relations. On 19th March, 1992, Bhani Ram, Chowkidar of the village Dhansu found the dead body of the deceased in the canal minor, on which he went to the police station and made his statement Ex.PJ before A.S.I. Jagbir Singh. The police officer conducted the inquest proceedings and sent the dead body for its post mortem examination. An entry to this effect was also recorded in the D.D.R. The post-mortem examination disclosed that the body was in an advanced stage of de-composition and was clad in a jacket, a white shirt, naswari sweater and white pyjamas. The dead body was sent to the Municipal Committee, Hissar and was cremated as an unclaimed one. On 17th April, 1992, Satish Kumar - PW 4 lodged a report with the police and on its basis, a formal F.I.R. was initially registered under Sec. 364 of the Indian Penal Code. The accused went to Bimal Kumar - PW 6 and made an extra judicial confession before him. He was arrested on 26th April, 1992 and on interrogation, suffered a disclosure statement and in pursuance thereto, a gold ring was recovered which was identified by Ram Chand- PW 8 as the one he had made for Madan Lai deceased. On 29th April, 1992, the A.S.I. went to village Bhagana, on which Head Constable Bhani Ram produced the clothes of the deceased before him and they were identified by Satish Kumar as being the clothes that the deceased ha when he had last seen him on 15th April, 1992.

(3.) In order to substantiate the charge against the accused, the prosecution examined inter-alia PW- 1 Mohan Lal Sharma Head Clerk of Municipal Committee, Hissar, who deposed to the effect that the dead body had been cremated as unclaimed and that Satish Kumar - PW 4 had identified the clothes and the watch taken off the body as belonging to his father; PW-2 Dr. Partap Singh, who had conducted the post mortem examination and had found the cause of death to be asphyxia as a result of drowning and had also taken off the clothes aforementioned from the dead body; PW-3 ASI Jagbir Singh who had recovered the dead body and taken into possession H.M.T. Wrist Watch after removing it from the wrist; PW-4 Satish Kumar the first informant and the son of the deceased who was a witness to the motive as also to the last seen evidence; PW-5 Sat Pal who was also a witness to the last seen as also to the motive for the offence; PW-6 Bimal Kumar before him the accused had made an extra judicial confession; PW-7 Ram Lal who was a scribe of the pronote and the receipt Exs. PW7/A and PW-7/B respectively; PW-9 Gurcharan Singh who was a witness to the disclosure statement and the recovery of gold ring at the instance of the accused and PW-12 S.I. Shiv Chand, the Investigating Officer.