STATE OF PUNJAB Vs. UJJAGAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) UJJAGAR Singh son of Arjan Singh resident of village Bangawali, Tehsil Malerkotla was tried and convicted for the murder of his niece Mukhtiar Kaur by the Sessions Judge, Sangrur, who had awarded the sentence of death penalty to him and referred the same for confirmation by this Court, vide order dated 5.9.2005. By this judgment, we propose to dispose of Murder Reference No. 9 of 2005 and Criminal Appeal No. 692-DB of 2005, which has been filed by Ujjagar Singh to challenge the judgment dated 5.9.2005, by a common judgment.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the facts of the prosecution case as brought out in the testimony of its witnesses are than on 10th of November, 2002 at about 2.00 P.M., a boy whose identity is not forthcoming in the prosecution evidence apprised Satnam Singh @ Satta PW-2 that there was a firing in the house of Ujaggar Singh. Satnam Singh in turn told this fact to Sarpanch Jora Singh PW- 1, who was attending a marriage in the village. On going there along with Gurdeep Singh, Jora Singh found that Mukhtiar Kaur was lying dead in the house due to gun shot injury and in front of the door of an adjoining room Ujjagar Singh son of Arjan Singh having mark of gun shot above the neck was lying smeared with blood in an unconscious condition. Jora Singh and Gurdeep Singh had then removed Ujjagar Singh in a jeep belonging to one Kulwant Singh alias Leela to Civil Hospital, Dhuri. At about 4.40 P.M., Jora Singh had meet Inspector/SHO Harjinder Pal Singh PW-14 when the latter was moving near Civil Hospital, Dhuri in connection with patrol duty and apprised him of the incident.

(3.) AS the relations of Mukhtiar Kaur with her in-laws were not cordial, she had been living with her uncle Ujjagar Singh for the past 7-8 months. According to information given by Jora Singh, Mukhtiar Kaur had been killed by Ujjagar Singh with his licensed gun and after this he had tried to commit suicide. On the basis of the statement, FIR No. 334 was registered in Police Station, Dhuri against Ujjagar Singh. In pursuance of FIR, PW-14 Inspector Harjinder Pal Singh had gone to the house of Ujjagar Singh where near the dead body of Mukhtiar Kaur he had lifted blood-stained earth and taken same in possession through recovery memo Ex. PB, which was attested by Jora Singh and ASI Jasbir Singh. He had also lifted one empty 12 bore shaktiman cartridge Ex. P-2, which was lying near the dead body of Mukhtiar Kaur and after making the same into a sealed parcel took the same into possession through recovery memo Ex. PD, which was also attested by the aforesaid witnesses. From the nearby room he had picked up blood-stained earth from the place where Ujjagar Singh was found lying unconscious by the witnesses and took the same into possession through recovery memo Ex. PC. By the side of place where Ujjagar Singh was lying, he found one DBBL gun Ex. P- 5, which was unloaded by him and the empty cartridge which was taken out from the right barrel of the gun was made into a sealed parcel and taken into possession through recovery memo Ex. PE. He had prepared the inquest report Ex. PH in the presence of witnesses and forward the dead body of Mukhtiar Kaur for post-mortem examination. On 11.11.2002, HC Balwinder Singh had produced before him the clothes worn by the deceased, which were taken into possession through recovery memo Ex. PQ. During investigation licence No. 156 DM Sangrur MKL/91 along with 10 cartridges mark as Shaktiman and 5 cartridges mark as Baco of 12 bore were taken into possession through recovery memo Ex. PM and the case property was deposited with Moharrir Head Constable, who had during the course of investigation forwarded the same to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing the gun as well as examining the blood-stained earth. The post-mortem on the dead body of Mukhtiar Kaur was performed by Dr. Ishwar Singh PW-5 and Dr. Harwinder Kaur PW-17 and Ujjagar Singh after being treated in the D.M.C. recovered from the injuries sustained by him, whereafter he was produced before the police on 5.1.2003. PW-14 Inspector Harjinder Pal Singh further recorded the statements of witnesses and after receipt of reports of Forensic Science Laboratory Ex. PAA, Ex. PBB, Ex. PDD and reports of Chemical Examiner Ex. PZ, a challan was put up before the Illqa Magistrate, who in turn committed the same to the Court of Sessions as the offences disclosed therein were exclusively triable by that Court.