THE STATE OF PUNJAB Vs. NACHHATTAR SINGH @ CHAILA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE epitome of the facts & evidence, unfolded during the course of trial, culminating in the commencement, relevant for deciding the instant appeal and emanating from the record, as claimed by the prosecution, is that on 3.12.1997, complainant Gurdeep Singh (PW1) (for brevity "the complainant") along with Tehal Singh (PW2) was going towards their village Saidpur on scooter, bearing registration No. PB -08 -HP -013. Daljit Singh and his son Akashdeep were coming on their scooter, bearing registration No. PB -08L -1063. As soon as, the scooter of Daljit Singh reached the place of occurrence, in the meantime, a white colour Tata Estate vehicle, bearing registration No. DL -1 -CF -5038 (for short "the offending vehicle"), being driven by respondent -accused Nachhattar Singh alias Chaila son of Sukhdev Singh, came in a very rash and negligent manner. He could not control and rammed the offending vehicle into the scooter of Daljit Singh and thrown him and his son on the road. They were removed to the Civil Hospital in an injured condition. Subsequently, taking into consideration their serious condition, the injured were referred to hospital at Ludhiana. As luck would have been, Daljit Singh succumbed to his injuries. Leveling a variety of allegations and narrating the sequence of events, in all, the prosecution claimed that the accident in question had taken place due to rash & negligent driving of respondent Nachhattar Singh while driving the offending vehicle, in which, Daljit Singh succumbed to his injuries and his son Akashdeep Singh received injuries. The complainant reported the matter to ASI Swaran Singh (PW3), who recorded his statement (Ex. PA). He made his endorsement (Ex. PA/1) and sent it to police station for registration of a case. In the background of these allegations and in the wake of statement of complainant, the present criminal case was registered against the respondent -accused, vide FIR No. 213 dated 3.12.1997 (Ex. PA/2), on accusation of having committed the offences punishable u/s. 279, 337, 338 and 304 -A IPC by the police of Police Station Shahkot, District Jalandhar, in the manner depicted here -in -above.

(2.) AFTER completion of the investigation, the final police report (challan) was submitted by the police against the respondent -accused to face the trial for the indicated offences.

(3.) THE prosecution, in order to substantiate the charges framed against the respondent -accused, examined complainant Gurdeep Singh as PW1, Tehal Singh as PW2, ASI Swaran Singh as PW3, Surjit Ram as PW4, Dr. Bhupinder Singh as PW5 and C. Desu Dass as PW6 in oral evidence, besides tendering recovery memos (Ex. PB, Ex. PC, Ex. PD, Ex. PH & Ex. PI) and rough site plan of place of occurrence (Ex. PE) in documentary evidence.