KULWINDER SINGH KALRA Vs. LAKHBIR KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since common questions of law and facts are involved in these appeals bearing CRA-D No. 868-DB of 2018 - Nirmala Devi vs State of Haryana and CRA-D No. 898-DB of 2018 - Joginder vs State of Haryana, therefore, the same are being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) The aforesaid appeals are instituted against the judgment dtd. 21/8/2018 and order dtd. 28/8/2018, rendered by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat, in SC/ CIS No. 250 of 2017 dtd. 20/7/2017, by appellants Nirmala Devi and Joginder, who were charged with and tried for the offence punishable under Ss. 364, 302, 201, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. The appellants were convicted and sentenced under Sec. 120-B of the Indian Penal Code to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.50,000.00 each and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further simple imprisonment for a period of three months. Appellant Joginder was further sentenced to imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs.1,00,000.00 for the commission of offence punishable under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further simple imprisonment for a period of six months. He was further sentenced to imprisonment for ten years and pay fine of Rs.25,000.00 for the commission of offence punishable under Sec. 364 of the Indian Penal Code and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further simple imprisonment for a period of forty five days. He was further sentenced to imprisonment for seven years and pay fine of Rs.10,000.00 for the commission of offence punishable under Sec. 201 of the Indian Penal Code and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further simple imprisonment for a period of twenty days. All the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(3.) The case of the prosecution in a nutshell is that on 4/2/2017 Smt. Anguri Devi moved an application to the police alleging therein that on 1/2/2017 at about 5.00 P.M., her son Kehar Singh went along with Joginder resident of Gamri in his vehicle. On that night, Joginder was murdered in the fields and whereabouts of her son were also not traceable. On the basis of this information, a case under Sec. 365 of the Indian Penal Code was registered. Investigation was carried out. On 2/2/2017, a burnt dead-body was recovered from the fields of Joginder. Mobile phone and shoes were also recovered from the spot. The dead-body was identified to be of Joginder. FIR No. 25 dtd. 2/2/2017 under Ss. 302, 201, 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against unknown persons. The site was inspected. Post-mortem was conducted. On 7/2/2017, Smt. Anguri Devi moved another application at Police Post, Court Complex, alleging that Joginder was alive and had absconded. According to her, the dead-body might be of her son. Blood samples of family members of Joginder as well as of Kehar Singh were taken for DNA testing. The case property was sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban. On 1/4/2017, accused Joginder surrendered in case FIR No. 25. However, no case was made out to arrest him in case FIR No. 25. On interrogation, he revealed that on 1/2/2017, he offered liquor to Kehar Singh. Thereafter, he committed his murder after strangulating. On 3/4/2017, he was arrested in the present case. He made disclosure statement, Ex.PW6/A, to the effect that he had visiting terms with Nirmala wife of Rajpal. She was into witch craft. About 7-8 months ago, she lost her son Kamal. She told that her son had died unnatural death and for the peace of his soul, she wanted to sacrifice a person, whose name starts with word 'K'. Accordingly, they hatched conspiracy. Accused Joginder took Kehar Singh from his house. He offered him drinks. Thereafter, he strangulated him. He took out his aadhar card and voter card from his pocket. He set him ablaze so that dead-body could not be identified. He got recovered car, aadhar card and voter card of Kehar Singh. Thereafter, a case under Ss. 302, 201, 120-B IPC read with Sec. 34 IPC was registered. On 5/4/2017, Nirmala Devi was arrested. Investigation was carried out and challan was put up after completion of all the codal formalities.