PARAMJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant Paramjit Singh has preferred the present appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 14.03.2002, passed by the Sessions Judge, Faridkot, vide which he has been held guilty for the commission of offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and accordingly convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/- and in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year. Brief facts of the prosecution case are that FIR in the present case has been registered on the statement of Inder Singh.

(2.) Complainant Inder Singh, in his statement, stated that on 23.12.1998 at about 7:30 a.m., when he was going on his motorcycle to village Hari Nau, on the road, in front of the field of Chuhar Singh, some persons were standing. He stopped his motorcycle and after parking it, he saw that a person with his face downwards, was lying dead on the berm of the road and near to him a bag, a watch and scooter were lying fallen. He identified the deceased as Harjinder Singh alias Vakil, who was his nephew by relation and was serving in cooperative Society, Surghuri. At a short distance on the road, turban, loi and pump shoe of the deceased were lying. Complainant found injuries on the left side of neck, head, face and left leg of deceased. In his opinion, the incident had happened on the previous night. He had come to know that his nephew Harjinder Singh, Paramjit Singh alias Pamma, Kaur Singh, Pritam Singh and Sanjiv alias Sanjay gathered in the cooperative bank of village Hari Nau on the previous night and went to Village Kotkapura on two scooters. As per knowledge of complainant, Pritam of Village Madhak met them near Hari Nau Railway Crossing, Kotkapura. Sanjay and Pritam of Village Madhak separated from them. Thereafter, Harjinder Singh (deceased), Paramjit Singh, Kaur Singh and Pritam Singh, Senior Clerk, took liquor in Hamraj Hotel. During this period, Harjinder Singh and Paramjit Singh brought a cylinder on the scooter from the house of his (Harjinder Singh) sister Sukhi wife of Jaswant Singh of Village Kotkapura. Then these four persons separated from each other. While taking liquor from village Kotkapura, Pritam Singh and Kaur Singh started going for Village Hari Nau on their scooter and Paramjit Singh and Harjinder Singh followed them on another scooter for Village Hari Nau. Complainant further stated that it came to his notice that Paramjit Singh alias Pamma left the cylinder on scooter in the house of Gurcharan Singh but till now they (complainant party) have not met Pamma. The complainant has suspected that aforesaid Kaur Singh, Paramjit Singh, Pritam Singh and Sanjiv Kumar have the knowledge of the incident occurred with his nephew Harjinder Singh or they are connected with the incident. After leaving his relatives at the spot, when the complainant alongwith Balwinder Singh alias Suba was going to Police Station to lodge the report, on the way, police party met him and his statement was recorded by ASI Baldev Singh of Police Station Sadar, Kotkapura on 23.12.1998. On the basis of statement of complainant, ruqa was sent to police station, pursuant to which FIR was registered. Then ASI Baldev Singh, Investigating Officer, alongwith complainant and other police officials went to the place of occurrence where dead body of Harjinder Singh was lying on the ground with his face downwards. He inspected the dead body of Harjinder Singh. There were sharp edged injuries on the dead body. Inquest report Ex.PK was prepared. Investigating Officer lifted blood stained earth and simple earth from the place of occurrence and the same, after converting into separate sealed parcels, were taken into police possession vide seizure memo Ex.PL. Scooter Bajaj Chetak bearing registration No.PB10-S-2810 alongwith Jhola containing registers of the Society, where deceased Harjinder Singh was employed, empty daba of gold Riband Whisky, one Loi, one turban, one ribbon like piece of cloth (under cover of turban), one mufler, broken frame of eye glasses, one wrist watch in broken condition, etc. were lifted from the place of occurrence and the same were taken into police possession vide seizure memo Ex.PM. Dead body of Harjinder Singh was sent for getting conducted postmortem examination. On 06.01.1999, accused was arrested. On interrogation, he suffered disclosure statement regarding concealing of blood stained 'kapa' and in pursuance thereof he got recovered the same. Statements of witnesses were recorded. After completion of investigation, challan against the accused was presented before the Court.

(3.) On presentation of challan, copies of challan and other documents were supplied to accused under Section 207 Cr.P.C. Finding a prima facie case against the accused, he was chargesheeted for the commission of offence punishable under Section 302 IPC to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. The prosecution, in support of its case, examined PW1 Dr.K.K.Aggarwal, who conducted the postmortem examination on the dead body of Harjinder Singh on 24.12.1998 at 9:00 a.m. and found the following injuries on his person:- 1. Incised wound 16 cm x 8 cm present on front left and back of neck. The anterior half showed irregular margins, while posterior part showed clean cut margins. The underlying platysma, sterno mastoid, vessels, nerves and veins were cut upto the vertebra. Clotted blood was present in the wound. 2. Reddish brown abrasion 5 cm x 4 cm on back of left elbow joint. Reddish brown abrasion 6 cm x 3 cm on posterior lateral aspect of left thigh in upper half. Lacerated wound 3 cm x .5 cm was present on the abrasion.