BIRPAL SINGH AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BIRPAL Singh son of Mukandi Lal and Satinder Singh alias Bitta son of Pritam Singh have assailed the judgment of conviction dated 08.04.2004 and order of sentence of even date recorded by Sh. Vijay Singh, the then Ld. Additional Sessions Judge (Adhoc), Ludhiana whereby both the appellants were convicted as under:

(2.) BRIEF facts of the case are like this; that on 20.05.2001, Amarjit Kaur, her mother Dwarka Devi, her brother Manjit Singh and father Attar Singh, after taking their meals, went to sleep in their house situated in village Kotla, PS -Samrala. Amarjit Kaur and her mother were sleeping on the cot lying on the right side whereas Manjit Singh on the cot lying nearby and Attar Singh slept on the Peti (Box). On account of week old illness, Amarjit Kaur could not sleep. At about 2.00 AM, she got up to take medicine. While she was sitting close to the door, three persons armed with Kirches scaled the wall of the house and entered into their room. One of them was muffled face; the second one with curly hair and good physique resembling Satinder @ Bitta of their village and the third one with beard and Parna tied around his head resembling Birpal. The person who was having curly hair removed blanket from the face of Manjit Singh and then he along with the person, resembling Birpal, gave Kirch blows on the neck, left arm and left hand of Manjit Singh. When her mother had tried to get up, the person who was resembling Birbal, gave a Kirch blow in her abdomen. When Attar Singh had tried to get up, the person with curly hair resembling Bitta, gave Kirch blow in his abdomen. Then, Amarjit Kaur picked up a Kulhadi (Axe) lying nearby and raised alarm. The person with muffled face, who had not participated in the assault, asked them to move, on which all of them along with their respective weapons fled away from the site by scaling the wall. On receipt of the injuries, her mother became unconscious. Complainant along with her father and brother had called the neighbours Major Singh and Jograj Singh. Jograj Singh took her to the house of Sarpanch Surjit Singh. On his direction, his son took the injured to Civil Hospital, Samrala by his car. After giving first aid, the injured were referred to CMC, Ludhiana. Amarjit Kaur and Major Singh brought the injured to CMC, Ludhiana. On receiving the message, ASI Devinder Pal Singh reached CMC, Ludhiana and recorded the statement of complainant Amarjit Kaur. As per Amarjit Kaur, motive behind the occurrence was the illicit relationship of her brother Nain Kumar with the wife of accused Birpal. She also reported that aforesaid matter was however patched up by way of compromise. The statement Ex. PA was sent to PS -Samrala through Constable Amarjit Singh. On the basis of which formal FIR, Ex. PW9/4, was recorded. Thereafter, an application, to seek opinion of the doctor as to if injured Dwarka Devi, Attar Singh and Manjit Singh were fit to give statements, was moved before the doctor which are Ex. PW9/5, PW9/6 and PW9/7, respectively. Doctor reported that injured Dwarka Devi and Attar Singh were unfit to give statement, vide report Ex. PW9/8 and Ex. PW9/9. However, injured Manjit Singh was opined as fit to give statement, vide Ex. PW9/10. Statement of Manjit Singh was recorded by the police. Thereafter, ASI Devinder Pal Singh visited the site and prepared rough site plan Ex. PW9/11 with the correct marginal notes. On 23.05.2001, applications were moved seeking opinion of doctor regarding injured Dwarka Devi and Attar Singh whereupon doctor opined, vide Ex. PW9/14 and PW9/15, that they were fit to give statements. Thereafter, their statements were recorded by the police. On 28.05.2001, injury reports of Dwarka Devi, Attar Singh and Manjit Singh were obtained. Injury on the persons of Dwarka Devi and Attar Singh were declared as dangerous to life whereas injury of Manjit Singh was declared grievous in nature. As such offences punishable u/s. 307, 326 IPC were added. Thereafter, since ASI Devinder Pal Singh was transferred, further investigation of the case was conducted by ASI Amarjit Singh. He arrested accused Birpal. Arrest memo was prepared; grounds of arrest were disclosed to him, vide memo Ex. PW8/2. Intimation regarding his arrest was given to his family through Ujaggar Singh son of Bachan Singh, vide memo Ex. PW8/3. During the course of investigation, accused Satinder @ Bitta was found innocent whereas accused Birpal was arrested on 07.11.2001. On interrogation, Birpal confessed that he alone had inflicted injuries to take revenge of his wife. After completion of investigation, Challan was presented in the court against accused Birpal. Ld. Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana charge -sheeted him, vide order dated 24.08.2002 to which he did not plead guilty but claimed trial.

(3.) AFTER taking entire prosecution evidence, statements of accused u/s. 313 Cr.P.C. were recorded wherein they denied each prosecution allegation and pleaded their innocence. Their defence is only to the effect that they are innocent and have been falsely implicated in this case.