DARA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Dara Singh 'alias' Dari and his brother Jndar Singh along with two others were sent up to take their trial for having committed the murder of Sardara Singh on the 19th of October, 1950, at Dulchipur. They were committed to take their trial by Mr. Hardayaj, Singh, Magistrate 1st Class and the trial was held by Mr. Gurdjal Singh, Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar. The learned Judge found Dara Singh and Indar Singh guilty under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced Dara Singh to death and Indar Singh to transportation for life. He found that the case against the companions of these persons was not proved and gave them the benefit of the doubt and equitted them. This order of the Additional Sessions Judge was passed on the 26th of March, 1951, whereupon the convicts appealed to this Court and the case was also sent for confirmation of the sentence of death under the provisions of Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(2.) The story against the appellants was simple enough. In broad daylight the two appellants and their two companions came armed to a pond where the deceased was bathing his buffalo. One of them, i.e., Indar Singh instigated the others to kill the deceased Sardara Singh. The other three went into the pond and killed Sardara Singh in water and drowned his body there in the pond. This incident was witnessed by a number of persons some of whom were produced before the trial Court. After the commission of the offence, all four ran away. All the accused were arrested a day later. From the house of one of them (Indar Singh) were found a shirt, a chad-dar', a 'barchha' and a 'takwa' which were later found to be stained with human blood. The 'barcha' was the one used by Dara Singh appellant.

(3.) The motive alleged was that Dalip Singh, the brother of the two appellants, was murdered by Sardara Singh deceased, his brother Gurmukh Singh, one of the eye-witnesses to the present occurrence, and two others about a year earlier. All the four had been convic-ed by the Sessions Judge, but this Court acquitted Sardara Singh deceased and his brother Gurmukh Singh who is the first in present in this case.