NIRMAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against the judgment/order dated 24.1.1994 of the learned Sessions Judge, Amritsar vide which he convicted Nirmal Singh appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/-. In default of payment of fine, he was ordered to undergo further R.I. for six months.

(2.) THE prosecution story in brief is that Joginder Kaur was married with Nirmal Singh accused who used to mal-treat her and on account of this, she had taken up residence with Amarjit Singh, elder brother of the accused. On 25.6.1991, Harjinder Singh P.W. and his mother Joginder Kaur were present in their house when Nirmal Singh came there and told Joginder Kaur that he would teach her a lesson for having started living with Amarjit Singh. On hearing this, the deceased got up and went inside a room and Nirmal Singh followed her into the room of the house. When Harjinder Singh tried to follow them inside, Nirmal Singh threatened to kill him. In the meantime, Amarjit Singh, the elder brother of the accused had reached there and he asked Harjinder Singh as to why he was weeping. Harjinder Singh told him that Nirmal Singh had taken his mother Joginder Kaur inside the room to kill her. On opening the door, Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh saw that Nirmal Singh was cutting Joginder Kaur after putting his foot on her chest. On seeing Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh, the accused ran away from the spot taking the datar among with him. When they (Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh) went near the place where Joginder Kaur was lying in a pool of blood, Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh found that her neck had been cut and she was already dead. Harjinder Singh raised a raula but no one came there and after leaving Harjinder Singh near the dead-body, Amarjit Sigh went to lodge a report with the police. In the area of Chowk Tahli Sahib, Amarjit Singh met S.I. Kishan Singh (PW-7) and before him he made a statement Ex.PW7/A which was read over to Amarjit Singh and he signed the same in token of its correctness. After making his endorsement Ex. PW7/B, S.I. Kishan Singh sent the ruqa to the police-station for registering the formal F.I.R. Ex.PW7/C. Thereafter, S.I. Kishan Singh went to the spot, prepared the Inquest Report Ex.PW5/A in relation to the dead-body of Joginder Kaur and after drawing up request for post-mortem examination Ex. PW7/D and injury statement Ex.PW7/E, he entrusted the dead-body to Constables Surinder Singh and Manjit Singh for getting the post-mortem conducted thereon.

(3.) AFTER the post-mortem examination, the doctor had handed over the clothes of the deceased to Constables Manjit Singh and Surinder Singh who, in turn, had produced them before S.I. Kishan Singh who took the same in possession through recovery memo Ex.PW7/H. The Sub-Inspector had also picked up blood- stained earth from the spot and after making it into a sealed parcel, took the same into possession through recovery memo Ex.PW7/F. He had also prepared the rough site plan Ex.PW7/G indicating the place of occurrence.