SOHAN SINGH @ CHARANJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Sohan Singh @ Charanjit Singh (in short, "Sohan Singh") has filed the present appeal against the judgment passed by learned District & Sessions Judge, Sirsa dated 11.11.2010 whereby he has been convicted and sentenced under Section 302 read with section 34 IPC to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default thereof, to undergo further simple imprisonment for four months. The appellant has also been convicted and sentenced under Section 201 IPC to undergo RI for three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/- and in default thereof, to undergo further simple imprisonment for two months. Both the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently. Initially, there were three accused namely Sohan Singh, Malkiat Kaur and Jagmeet Singh. Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh have been convicted and sentenced as mentioned above, whereas Jagmeet Singh has been acquitted. Malkiat Kaur has not filed any appeal. Only Sohan Singh has filed the present appeal.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution is that complainant Sujan Kaur wife of Sher Singh, resident of Village Chormar, made a statement to the police on 12.9.2009 to the effect that her husband expired several years ago. She had three sons namely Darshan Singh, Balbir and Mahender Singh. Darshan Singh and Mahender Singh had expired and their families were living separately. She was living with the children of her son Mahender Singh. Her elder son Darshan Singh had two sons out of whom Jagmeet Singh was elder and Sukha Singh was younger to him. Jagmeet Singh was married and was living separately in the same house and Sukha Singh was residing separately in the same house alongwith his mother Malkiat Kaur. Sukha Singh was addicted to intoxicants. Sohan Singh, resident of Village Naurang was on visiting terms with Sukha Singh and they were doing business together. Sohan Singh often used to visit Malkiat Kaur, daughter-in-law of complainant in the house. Character of Malkiat Kaur was doubtful. Sujan Kaur underwent an eye operation about one month back and she had gone to her daughter Guddi in Village Malikpura. On 12.9.2009 at about 8 AM on receipt of information regarding the death of her grand son Sukha Singh, she reached the house of her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur and saw that her grand son Sukha Singh was lying dead and preparation for his cremation had already been done. When she enquired about the cause of death, her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur told her that Sukha Singh was suffering from brain fever in the night and he died because of the same. Malkiat Kaur took all the family members in confidence and got Sukha Singh cremated. She and her other family members had gone in deep grief on account of the death. After about four hours when she gained consciousness, she enquired from her daughter-in- law Malkiat Kaur about the ligature marks on the neck of Sukha Singh but she did not give any reply and she suddenly left the house on some pretext. Thereafter when she enquired from her grand son Jagmeet Singh, she came to know that on previous night Sohan Singh had come to the house of Sukha Singh and they both had taken liquor till late in the night. Sohan Singh had illicit relations with Malkiat Kaur and for this reason Sukha Singh used to quarrel with his mother and that is why Sohan Singh and Malkiat Kaur had killed Sukha Singh by throttling his neck. She also personally enquired about the same and the aforesaid fact came to light. Her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh in order to conceal their illicit relations and to remove Sukha Singh from their way committed murder of Sukha Singh by administering some intoxicant and then by throttling his neck and getting him cremated clandestinely. On the above statement of Sujan Kaur, complainant, Inspector Heera Singh, SHO Odhan made his endorsement and sent the same to Police Station,Odhan on the basis of which the present case was registered against accused Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh under Sections 302, 201 read with Section 34 IPC.

(3.) STATEMENTS of the witnesses were recorded under Section 161 Cr.PC. Post mortem of the remnants of the deceased was got conducted. Viscera, bones and burnt clothes of the deceased were made into separate parcels and sealed and were taken into possession vide recovery memo. All the parcels were sent to the FSL, Madhuban for chemical analysis. On completion of investigation, challan was presented in the court against all the three accused under sections 302, 201 read with section 34 IPC. Thereafter the case was committed to the Court of Sessions vide order dated 24.12.2009 by Judicial Magistrate, First Class Dabwali. On 28.01.2010 on being charged for the offence under section 302 read with sections 34 and 201 IPC, all the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.