DHIRA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 16.3.2004 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Patiala, whereby he convicted the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. He was ordered to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-; in default thereof, he was further directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months. Appellant was convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. However, accused Cheeta, Bana, Sardar Hussain, Rasid, Alla Rakha and Setha were acquitted of the charges framed against them. A synoptical resume of the prosecution case is as under:- On 10.1.2000 Assistant Sub Inspector Rajesh Kumar, Incharge P.P. Focal Point, Rajpura along with other police officials was present at Kalka Fathak, in connection with patrol duty, where Jagdish Chand son of Bashambar Dass Goel made his statement before the police stating therein that he is retired from the Department of Post and Telegraph, C.T.O., Chandigarh and is running the business of STD/PCO on Kalka road. His wife Sarswati has three sisters. His sister-in-law Satya Devi is married to Dhanpat Rai resident of Rajpura. Second sister-in-law namely Kamla Devi is married to Shiv Kumar Gupta, who has a son namely Tarun Kumar @ Tinku, aged about 15 years. His father-in-law had no son. The whole of the property was divided between the husbands of all the three sisters according to the will executed by Lala Janki Dass and all are residing in their respective houses. His brother-in-law namely, Shiv Kumar son of Ram Sarup was residing in the house which was near to his house along with his son Tinku. His sister-in-law namely Kamla Devi died about two years back. The son of Shiv Kumar had gone to Sirsa for participating in tournament on 9.1.2000 and on that night, Shiv Kumar was sleeping in his house alone. In routine, his brother-in-law Shiv Kumar was seen walking in his verandah at 7.00 A.M. and they enquired about each other. On 10.1.2000 when he was going to his shop at about 8.30 A.M. Shiv Kumar was not seen in the verandah. He called Shiv Kumar but no reply was received. Then he saw into the house and found that door of the room was open and the articles were lying scattered on the floor of the house. He saw that the body of Shiv Kumar was lying half on the bed and half was hanging. There were mark of injuries on his neck caused by sharp edged weapon. It appeared that some body in order to commit theft had murdered Shiv Kumar. On seeing this, he called his brother-in-law, namely, Dhanpat Rai and some other people of the locality also gathered there. On the basis of the statement made by Jagdish Chand, formal FIR was recorded. Police inspected the place of occurrence and prepared rough site plan and recorded the statements of the witnesses. The dead body of Shiv Kumar was taken to A.P.Jain Hospital, Rajpura for post mortem examination. After completion of the investigation, accused was sent up for trial.

(2.) Accused was charge-sheeted under Sections 302/458/148/149 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 25 of the Indian Arms Act, to which accused did not plead guilty and claimed trial. Prosecution, in order to prove its case, examined as many as 11 witnesses, namely, Constable Sukhwinder Singh (PW-1), Paramjit Singh Gurm (PW-2), Jagdish Chand (PW-3), Dhanpat Rai (PW-4), Om Parkash (PW-5), Baldev Singh, Assistant Sub Inspector (PW-6), Dr. Manjit Singh (PW-7), Rajesh Kumar, Assistant Sub Inspector (PW-8), William Jeji, Sub Inspector (PW-9), Jaswinder Singh (PW-10) and Balraj Singh, Inspector ( PW-11) and closed its evidence.

(3.) In his statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, accused denied all the prosecution allegations levelled against him and pleaded that he has been falsely implicated in this case. He was called upon to enter upon his defence and during the course of defence evidence, accused tendered some certified copies of the statements of Om Parkash, Ex. D-5 and Ex. D-6 and closed the defence.