SURINDER PAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dis-satisfied with the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 29/30/10/2009, passed by the Court of Sessions, Jalandhar, whereby the appellant was held guilty under Ss. 302 and 201 of the IPC and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000.00 under Sec. 302 of IPC, in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000.00 under Sec. 201 of IPC, in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months, the appellant has preferred the present appeal under Sec. 374 of Criminal Procedure Code (for short 'Cr.P.C.') with a prayer to set aside the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 29/30/10/2009 and to acquit him of the charges.

(2.) In the instant case, the law was set in motion with the recording of the statement of Shakuntla w/o the appellant (Ex.PA) and the same is reproduced below:-

(3.) After the reporting of the matter to the police at 12.30 p.m. on 9/9/2008, the FIR was registered in the instant case. The police party visited the spot, prepared rough site plan Ex.-PB, Scaled site plan Ex.-PH of the place of occurrence. On 11/9/2008, SI Pritam Singh, PW-4 went to the cremation ground and collected the ashes and bones, which were converted into a parcel and the parcel was sealed with the seal 'PS' and took the same into possession vide memo Ex.-PC. The said memo was attested by Prithi Raj Singh, Shakuntla PW-2/complainant and Naresh Kumar, PW-1. Later, he arrested the appellant/accused and upon disclosure statement by him, Pritam Singh, SI recovered a danda from him, which was kept concealed in the bushes by the site of the canal in the limits of village Daduwal. The sketch was attested by Prithi Raj Singh, HC and he prepared the rough site plan of the place of recovery Ex.-PF. The danda so recovered from the accused was MO-1. On completion of the investigation, the challan under Sec. 173 Cr.P.C. was presented in the Court of the Area Magistrate. The Court of Sessions Judge, Jalandhar ordered framing of charges against the appellant under Ss. 302 and 201 of IPC and the trial formally commenced. During the course of trial, the prosecution relied upon the testimonies of the eight witnesses, namely, Naresh Kumar PW-1, Shakuntla PW-2, Jaswinder Kaur PW-3, SI Pritam Singh PW-4, HC Surjit Singh PW-5, HC Shamsher Singh, PW-6, MHC Kuldip Singh PW-7 and Kirpal Singh PW-8.