ROHTASH Vs. THE STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals by Rohtash son Suraj Mal and Raju alias Raj Kumar, Appellant/accused, are directed against the judgment dated 28.3.2002 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat, vide which he convicted the accused for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine ofRs.2,000/ - and in default thereof to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months.

(2.) THE prosecution story, in brief, is that Zile Singh deceased had engaged his daughter Smt. Devi and Pala son of Roop Chand had also engaged his daughter in the same family about 20/22 days before the present occurrence. On 20.12.1998 at about 9 a.m., Pala took the deceased with him to Panipat from the fields of Ram Kumar Ex -Sarpanch on the plea of performing the engagement of his daughter. Thereafter, he never came back. On 22.12.1998 in the afternoon, Pala had gone to village Panchi Gujran. When Ram Kumar asked from him about the whereabouts of the deceased, Pala disclosed to him that on 21.12.1998 at 4.30 p.m., they came back to Panchi Gujran from Panipat from where the deceased left for his house on the bi -cycle and while leaving that place, it was told by the deceased that he will come to his house after meeting the Secretary of that village. Thereafter, Satbir Singh complainant (PW -5), nephew of the deceased, alongwith Ram Kumar, Prahlad Singh and Ram Sarup went in search the deceased. While they were proceeding to the village Panchi Gujran and reached near the field of Dewan Chand, they found that the dead body of the deceased was lying on the road adjoining those fields. The torn shirt of the deceased, woolen chadar and the other chadar of the deceased were lying in the fields, wherein wheat crop was standing and which had already been irrigated. There were strangulation mark around his neck and the blood had oozed out of his mouth, nose and eyes. After leaving Prahlad Singh and others at the spot, the complainant was proceeding to the police station to lodge a report when Sube Singh, SI (PW -13) met him on the G.T. Road, Karnal. At that place he made the statement Ex. PH about all those facts before the SI, who after recording his police proceedings sent the same to the Police Station, on the basis of which FIR Ex. PH/1 was recorded. Accompanied by the complainant, the SI came to the place where the dead body of the deceased was lying. He called the photographer to that place, who took the photographs. He prepared the inquest report Ex. PQ in respect of the dead body and sent the same for post -mortem examination. He inspected the spot and prepared rough site plan Ex. PS with correct marginal notes. The torn shirt and woolen chadar of the deceased were recovered from the spot, which were converted into a parcel and the same was sealed by him with the seal 'SS'. The sealed parcel was taken into possession, vide Ex. PT. The shoes of the deceased were also recovered from that place, which were converted into a parcel and the same was sealed with seal 'SS' That sealed parcel was taken into possession, vide memo Ex. PU. The other chadar of the deceased was also recovered from that place, which was taken into possession after converting that into a sealed parcel, vide memo Ex. PN. Two pieces of rope having the length of 7 inches and 14 inches respectively and two steel keys were also recovered from that place, which were converted into separate parcels and were sealed with 'SS'. The autopsy on the dead body was performed by Dr. Arun Garg (PW -6), who found ligature mark around the neck and other ante -mortem injuries. He gave his opinion that the cause of death was asphyxia, as a result of strangulation, which was ante -mortem in nature and was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. After post -mortem, the wearing apparels found on the dead body were produced before that SI, who converted the same into a parcel and sealed with the seal 'SS'. That sealed parcel was taken into possession, vide memo Ex. PA. The statements of the witnesses were recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure It transpired from their statements that before his death, the deceased was in the company of Rohtash, Siri Ram and Raju -accused. Kitaboodin PW came out with the version that on 21.12.1998, Siri Ram and Raj Kumar accused came to him and made extra -judicial confessions that they alongwith Rohtash, after serving liquor to the deceased, strangulated him to death by putting a rope around his neck. The accused Siri Ram and Raj Kumar were arrested on 21.12.1989 by Inder Singh, Inspector/SHO (PW -12). On interrogation, in the presence of Rajinder Singh (PW -14) and Sunder Pal (PW -11), they made disclosure statement Ex. PO and PP respectively, in which they made their confession that they alongwith Rohtash took liquor with the deceased at the tubewell of Shankar Dass and all three of them made a planning to kill him and when the deceased was under the influence of alcohol, they took him towards village Garhi Jhijhara and when they reached near the fields of Mukesh, he was caught hold of by Raju and Siri Ram, whereas Rohtash caught hold of him by his feet and thereafter strangulated him to death, after putting a rope around his neck and after committing his murder, they dragged his dead body to the filed of wheat crop where water was standing and they threw the same, alongwith the articles of the deceased in the same. Rohtash accused was arrested by Sube Singh, SI (PW -13) on 29.12.1998 and he made a similar confession regarding which memo Ex. PV was prepared. The map on scale Ex. PF of the place, from where the dead body of the deceased and his articles were recovered, was got prepared from Krishan Kumar, Patwari (PW -8). After completion of the investigation, challan was put in before the JMIC, Sonepat, who committed the same to the Court of Session on the ground that the offence under Section 302 IPC was exclusively triable by that Court.

(3.) TO bring home the guilt of the accused, the prosecution examined Satbir Singh (PW -1), Naresh (PW -2), Ram Niwas (PW -3), Subhash (PW -4), Satbir Singh (PW -5), Dr. Arun Garg (PW -6), Kitaboodin (PW -7), Krishan Kumar, Patwari (PW -8), Ram Kumar (PW -9), Pehlad Singh (PW -10), Sunder Pal (PW -11), Inder Singh, SHO (PW -12), Sube Singh (PW -13), and Rajinder Singh (PW -14).