IKRAM Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Vide judgment and order dtd. 10/12/2015 of the Ld. Sessions Judge, Mewat accused/convict Ikram was convicted under Sec. 302 IPC for the murder of his daughter (Sahiba) and awarded the death penalty subject to confirmation by this Court. Murder Reference Case No.1 of 2016 for confirmation of death sentence was filed by the State of Haryana. Accused-appellant Ikram filed CRA-D-1702-DB-2015 challenging the judgment of conviction and order of sentence. Appeal was heard by a Division Bench and vide judgment dtd. 27/2/2018, one of the members of the Bench (A.B. Chaudhari, J.) allowed the appeal filed by the convict-appellant and acquitted him of the charges levelled against him and dismissed the Murder Reference. The second Hon'ble Judge (Inderjit Singh, J.) while upholding the judgment of conviction modified the sentence to imprisonment for life instead of death penalty and also imposed fine of Rs.10,000.00 and in default of payment of fine, he was to undergo RI for a period of six months. The Murder Reference was thereby declined. But in view of the difference of opinion among the members of the Bench on the aspect of conviction, the appeal has been listed before this Bench in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 392 Cr.P.C.

(2.) The case of the prosecution in a nutshell is that on 15/2/2014 a telephonic information was received at Police Station, Punhana that a quarrel had taken place in Village Manota. Immediately on receiving the information the Inspector Allah Bux went to the village. Convict- Ikram submitted an application to him. The contents of the application are as under:

(3.) On the basis of this application FIR was registered and investigation started. During the investigation, the version of Ikram was not found to be correct. It was found by the Investigating Officer that Ikram himself had committed the murder of his minor daughter and in order to mislead the police and take revenge against Nasru, Hakmuddin, Irshad, Saibu and Halima, he had filed a false complaint. Accused was produced before the police by one Aziz on 20/3/2014 and he was arrested. On his disclosure knife and bloodstained clothes were recovered. Statement of witnesses were recorded. After investigation, challan was presented against him.