NASIB KAUR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are sisters Nasib Kaur and Surjit Kaur and their respective spouses Rattan Singh and Teja Singh. Nasib Kaur and Surjit Kaur had two brothers Jeet Singh and Sarwan Singh.

(2.) ACCORDING to Jeet Singh has brother Sarwan Singh was done to death on June 18, 1998 by the petitioners. After the murder the dead body was cremated without any autopsy. Jeet Singh came to know about the death of his brother on June 29 and he approached the Bahram Police to investigate the circumstances leading to Sarwan Singh's murder but when no action was taken he presented a criminal complaint on August 19, against the petitioners, who are his sisters Nasib Kaur and Surjit Kaur and their respective husbands Rattan Singh and Teja Singh. In the complaint under Sections 302/34 read with Sections 120-B and 201 IPC Jeet Singh gave the background of the relationships and pleaded that he and Sarwan Singh were joint owners of agricultural land in Narang Shahpur. Sarwan Singh was living with him and they had joint cultivation. He was single and issueless. It was further alleged that in January 1998 the petitioners managed to prevail upon Sarwan Singh to alienate his share in the land by transferring it to Naranjan Singh and took Sarwan Singh along with them to Rattan Singh's village Bharoli. As Sarwan Singh was not inclined to sell his share he returned to Narang Shahpur on May 1 and resumed living with Jeet Singh but in the first week of June Teja Singh and Rattan Singh took back Sarwan Singh to village Bharoli. Sarwan Singh also opened an account in the Punjab National Bank and deposited Rs. 20,000/- (Sic 20.00 lacs) received as token payment of sale consideration for the sale of his land from the vendee Niranjan Singh. Registered sale deed was executed by Sarwan Singh in favour of Naranjan Singh before the Sub-Registrar, Phagwara on June 12. Naranjan Singh returned to U.K. and from there remitted an amount of Rs. 15 lacs, which was also credited to Sarwan Singh's account. On June 17 Surjit Kaur petitioner opened an account with the same bank with the deposit of Rs. 100/-, her sister Nasib Kaur already had an account in that bank. The petitioners along with Sarwan Singh visited the bank on that day and tried to prevail upon Sarwan Singh to transfer Rs. 10 lacs each to Nasib Kaur and Surjit Kaur. This was witnessed by Baldev Singh, who happened to be present in the bank. Sarwan Singh did not concede to their demands.

(3.) THE petitioners were summoned after preliminary evidence had been recorded and on their appearance charges were framed against them on November 2, 2000.