HARBANS SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been filed by the appellant Harbans Singh against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 10.10.2002, passed by learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Moga, whereby appellant was convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 5000/- and in default of payment of fine, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year under Section 302 IPC.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the FIR in the present case has been registered on the statement of Karnail Kaur, who got recorded her statement to SI Malkit Singh on 23.10.1999. Complainant Karnail Kaur stated that her husband Jugraj Singh died about 15 years ago. She has one son namely Harjinder Singh, who is about 18-19 years and he runs a milk dairy in the village. On 22.10.1999, at about 8.00 p.m., Bhupinder Kaur came to her house. She was married to Harbans Singh about 15 years ago and she has one son namely Harpreet Singh aged about 10-12 years. Bhupinder Kaur got divorce from Harbans Singh about 4-5 years back and she used to get maintenance from Harbans Singh. When Bhupinder Kaur came to her house, her son was also with her. She and her son stayed at her house during that night. Complainant's son Harjinder Singh had gone to work on his dairy. Bhupinder Kaur went to the house of Harbans Singh to receive maintenance allowance. At about 8.00 a.m., Bhupinder Kaur came running to her house and she was being chased by Harbans Singh, who was armed with dah. He started causing dah blows to Bhupinder Kaur in the kitchen of complainant's house. Before the complainant reached the place, Bhupinder Kaur had fallen on the ground and died on the spot. There were marks of injuries on her neck, mouth, hands and blood was oozing out. The son of Bhupinder Kaur was also in the house and on seeing the occurrence, he became frightened and ran away from the house. The complainant raised alarm and then Harbans Singh ran away from her house along with dah. On hearing the alarm, Jit Singh, Member, Gurdeep Singh, Member and Pritam Singh, Sarpanch, reached at complainant's house, to whom the complainant narrated the whole story. The motive behind the occurrence is that there was a divorce between Bhupinder Kaur and Harbans Singh and the Court had fixed the maintenance allowance. When Bhupinder Kaur had gone to get the maintenance amount, Harbans Singh had objected to her coming to his house and upon this, an altercation took place between them. Bhupinder Kaur came running to complainant' house and Harbans Singh caused her injuries with sharp-edged weapon and committed murder of Bhupinder Kaur. The complainant left Gurdeep Singh, Panch at the spot to guard the dead body and went towards police station along with Pritam Singh, Sarpanch and Jit Singh, member to report the matter. On the way, SI Malkit Singh met the complainant and statement was recorded. Ruqa was sent to the police station, on the basis of which, FIR was registered. Special report was sent to the officers concerned. Thereafter, SI Malkit Singh went to the spot of occurrence along with other police officials and recorded the statements of the witnesses. Thereafter, the investigation was handed over to SI Sandeep Kumar. Accused was arrested and on his disclosure statement, dah was recovered. After necessary investigation, challan was presented against the accused-appellant.

(3.) On presentation of challan, copies of challan and other documents were supplied to the accused-appellant under Section 207 Cr.P.C. Finding prima facie case, the appellant was charge-sheeted under Section 302 IPC, to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.