HARBHAJAN SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Harbhajan Singh aged 25 and Kaila, Christian, aged 18, were tried on a charge of murder under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code by the learned Sessions Judge of Gurdaspur. Both of them were acquitted of the charge but Harbhajan Singh was convicted under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years.

(2.) The deceased was Mst. Budho who was the widow of a collateral of Ram Singh father of Harbhajan Singh. There was litigation about a piece of land which had been left by the husband of Mst. Budho and ultimately it resulted in favour of the woman. She got symbolical possession of this piece of land and wanted to take physical possession of it. On the 26th of April, 1955 she went to the Patwari who lived in Narot Mehra, a village about a mile from her own village, but she did not return the same evening. Her nephew Gurdit Singh became apprehensive and after making a search for her at the village where the Patwari was he went and made a report to the police under section 364, Indian Penal Code, in which it was stated that the suspicion was on Ram Singh and his sons. The police started investigation and on the same day they arrested Harbhajan Singh and interrogated him. He disclosed that there was a patch of blood on the pathway leading from the village to Narot Mehra at a distance of 40 or 50 karams from the factory of Karam Chand P.W.10. He also disclosed that he had kept a dopatta belonging to the deceased at a place which was not very far from where the blood was found. Further interrogation brought out the fact that Harbhajan Singh had thrown the dead body in the Upper Bari Doab Canal which was about a mile from the place where the blood patch was found. When the police went there along with the witnesses one sandal Exhibit P.2, was found. Also there was some blood-stained earth discovered and two bloodstained stones, Exhibit P.4 and P.5, found there. When the accused was brought back he also disclosed that there was a bloodstained kirpan which was lying in a kotha of his residential house.

(3.) As a result of this information the police made a search for the dead body but it was not recovered. A telegram was sent to P.W.16 Mangal Dass by the Sub Inspector to keep a watch for a dead body, and a headless body was found on the 4th of May, 1955. This body, according to Mangal Dass P.W.16, was noticed by him. Sohan Singh P.W. 4 states that he found the dead body floating in the canal and he had been informed about it by Rovail Singh P.W.5. The head of this body was found on the 6th of May, 1955 by Piara Singh beldar. The doctor found that the head fitted the body and the body was identified by certain witnesses to be that of the deceased woman.