BHUPINDER SINGH Vs. U.T. CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BHUPINDER Singh had filed appeal against judgment dated 20.7.1999 of Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh whereby accused-appellant Bhupinder Singh was convicted for the offence under Sections 376/417 IPC. He was sentenced to undergo RI for seven years and to pay fine of Rs. 10,000/-, in default of payment of fine, he was to further RI for one year under Section 376 IPC. He was further sentenced to undergo RI for nine months under Section 417 IPC.

(2.) PROSECUTION case against the accused-appellant was registered on written complaint filed by Manjit Kaur that she was employed as Clerk in All Bank Employees Urban Salary Earners Thrift Credit Society Ltd. and worked as such till September 1991. She was daily commuting from Naraingarh District Ambala, where her sister was residing. Bhupinder Singh was employed as Data Entry Operator in the State Bank of Patiala, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh. He used to come to her office and developed intimacy and then asked her to marry after disclosing himself as unmarried person. Accused Bhupinder Singh insisted upon her to get married at the earliest in a Gurdwara through simple ceremony and said that permission from the parents can be taken later on and that thereafter marriage would be solemnized with great pomp and show. Then she agreed to the proposal of the accused. Then on 4.12.1990, Manjit Kaur and Bhupinder Singh got solemnized their marriage in Gurdwara after exchanging garland before the holy Granth Sahib. At that time, one Sohan Singh husband of her cousin sister Joginder Kaur was also present. Then she stayed with the accused in H. No. 3166, Sector 22-C (Top Floor), Chandigarh where accused was residing jointly with one J.P. Goel, who was working in the same bank. Then they had gone to Kasauli for honeymoon on 27.12.1990 and stayed in a hotel. Then her office was shifted from Sector 17 to Sector 42, Chandigarh. She and the accused shifted to H. No. 1110, Sector 42-B, Chandigarh in a rented accommodation owned by one Pritam Singh. Even landlord had lodged a report in Police Station, Sector 36, Chandigarh showing them as husband and wife and prior to that a form was duly filled by Bhupinder Singh and was handed over to the landlord to establish the fact of their being husband and wife. Then the accused had also taken a loan of Rs. 5,000/- from a society at Panchkula in May 1991, where he had nominated her as his wife. Then she became pregnant and then accused got her aborted from Kaushal Nursing Home against her wishes. She had left the service in September 1991 under the pressure of the accused. In the year 1992, accused Bhpinder Singh was transferred from Chandigarh to Ropar and they shifted to Ropar in House 111, Street No. 8, Malhotra Colony, Ropar. Then they came back to Chandigarh again and started living in H. No. 859, Sector 38, Chandigarh and accused Bhupinder Singh started going to Ropar daily from Chandigarh. She got re-employment in May 1993 in Panjab University, Chandigarh on daily wages as Clerk and even visited H. No. C146, Sector 14, Panjab University, Chandigarh on the eve of Diwali in 1993. She again became pregnant in July 1993 and their relations remained cordial till March, 1994.

(3.) ON behalf of the complainant, a Criminal Revision was filed for enhancement of sentence. Further a Crl. Misc. Application was also filed for awarding compensation under Section 357 IPC.