STATE OF HARYANA Vs. PURAN CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment shall dispose of Murder Reference No. 3 of 2000 and Crl. Appeal No. 261-DB of 2000. Both the matter arise out of the following facts :

(2.) AT about 5.30 P.M. on 2.6.1997, P.W.4-Naresh Kumar (the complainant) and his cousin Pardeep Kumar were cutting fodder with the help of a machine in their kotha constructed in their gher in village Damla Kishanpura. P.W.5- Mahanto Devi (Naresh Kumar's mother) was close by placing cow-dung cakes along the side wall of their gher, whereas his uncle Ram Sarup and his brothers Ramesh and Surinder (all three deceased) were sitting on a bullock-cart parked in the gher. P.W.13-Jaswanto Devi, wife of Ram Sarup aforesaid, and her son Sanjiv Kumar, were putting fodder to the cattle tethered in the gher. Mahanto Devi came up to Naresh Kumar and told him that Puran Chand (Fauji), the accused, had told her not to place the cow-dung cakes near the wall and had threatened that he would shoot her. A short while later, the tranquillity of this pastoral setting was horrendously and for ever shattered when Puran Chand climbed on to the roof of the house of the complainant Naresh Kumar and fired a shot at Ram Sarup with his shotgun. On hearing the noise, Naresh Kumar and Pardeep Kumar immediately rushed out of the kotha and found Ram Sarup lying on the ground at some distance from the Cart. They also observed the accused firing two more shots directly at Ramesh and Surinder Kumar, whereas some of the pallets also hit Jaswanto Devi and her daughter P.W.12-Tarsem Kaur. On seeing what had happened, Naresh Kumar and the others went inside the kotha and hid themselves and on finding after some time that Puran Chand had run away, they came out and noticed that Ram Sarup, Ramesh and Surinder had all succumbed to their injuries. Information about the murders was given to the police on telephone by Muni Lal Sarpanch, on which P.W.18-Sub Inspector Dhanna Ram reached the place of incident at about 8.00 p.m. and recorded the statement of P.W.4-Naresh Kumar at the spot and, on its basis, the formal first information report was registered at 8.20 P.M. at Police Station Sadar Yamunanagar, with the special report being delivered to the Illaqa Magistrate locally at 9.00 p.m. The police officer then made the necessary inquiries at the spot and amongst other things, recovered three empty cartridge cases from the roof of the house of the complainant. Accused Puran Chand was arrested on 5.6.1997 and on a disclosure statement made by him, his licensed DBBL gun was recovered. Accused Raj Kumari was arrested two days later as it transpired during the investigation that she had given a lalkara that the three persons be done to death. On the completion of the investigation, a charge for the substantive offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was framed against Puran Chand, whereas Raj Kumari (his wife) was charged with the aid of Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) THE prosecution story was then put to the accused. Pursan Chand accused admitted that he had fired the fatal shots, but had done so in self-defence when he had been chased by the three deceased with the object of causing him serious injury. In elaboration, he stated as under :- "I am innocent and is a victim of fabrication. As a matter of fact, about a week prior to the present occurrence when my elder daughter Suman was all alone at our home and she was taking bath at that time, Surinder, since deceased, came down from the staircase of our house with a bad intention and on seeing him my daughter Suman started raising alarm upon which Surinder fled away from the same staircase. Thereafter, on the next day or day after I convened a panchayat in which Surinder deceased was summoned and there in the Panchayat I rebuked and abused Surinder for his misconduct. On the next day of it my wife along with my children went to village Hamirpur at the house of my in-laws as schools were closed during those days. On 2.6.1997, I returned to my work from Yamuna Nagar and reached my house at 3 p.m. and when I was all alone inside my house deceased Ram Sarup, Ramesh and Surinder along-with some other persons came outside my house at about 4 p.m. and started hurling abuses and threats to me and they also started hitting the door of my Baithak which was bolted from inside and in that situation, I got frightened and in that situation after picking up my gun I opened the door of the other gate of my house and through that gate I started running in the street to save my 'life but Surinder etc. named above, started running after me and they also tried to cause injuries to me and in that situation out of apprehension of danger to my life I took a turn and fired in a huff which hit Surinder, Ramesh and Ram Sarup and thereafter I fled away out of fear. Had I not acted in right of my self-defence Surinder etc. would have liquidated me. From there I straightaway went to the Police Station Yamuna Nagar and narrated the whole occurrence to the SHO concerned. I was illegally detailed in the police Station uptil 5.6.1997 and then recovery of gun etc. were planted on me. No occurrence took place in the Bara as stated by the prosecution witnesses. I have been falsely fastened in the present case."