BARINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Prayer in these appeals is for setting-aside the judgment of conviction as well as the order of sentence dtd. 5/9/2016 vide which the appellants namely Barinder Singh @ Bunty, Hardeep Singh @ Deep, Amarinder Singh @ Kaptan, Manjinder Singh @ Manu, Amarinder Singh, Jaideep Singh, Harinder Singh @ Cheeku and Gurjit Singh, were convicted for offence punishable under Sec. 25 of the Arms Act and they were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 03 years and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000.00 and in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 03 months.

(2.) Brief facts of the case (in CRA-S No.3199-SB of 2016) are that on 21/9/2011, SI Gurpartap Singh, SHO, Police Station Urban Estate, Patiala along with other police personnel was present in the premises of Punjabi University, Patiala, in connection with investigation of case registered vide FIR No.91 dtd. 21/9/2011 under Ss. 307/148/149 of the Indian Penal Code,1860 (in short 'IPC') and 25 of the Arms Act, where accused Jashanpartap Singh Virk son of Charanjit Singh was apprehended. He was interrogated, during course of which he made statement before SI Gurpartap Singh wherein he stated that he is student of Ist year of Modi College, Patiala. Their organization NSFA headed by its President Harinder Singh @ Cheeku resident of village Saifdipur was organizing a volleyball tournament at Punjabit University, Patiala. The other group headed by its President Varinderpal Singh @ Bunty and his colleagues was opposing that move. Varinderpal Singh had come to premises of Punjabi University and threatened that in case they organized the tournament then, they would have to the consequences. On 20/9/2011, when the tournament started and they were coming out of the premises at about 07:30 PM, they had boarded their vehicles. He was having Indica car bearing registration No.PB-11-AT-3314 and other vehicles with their group included an Endeavour car having last number 109, while in colour, belonging to Manbhinder Singh resident of village Mandaur, Scorpio vehicle bearing registration No.PB-11-AV-0069, white-cream in colour belonged to Harinder Singh @ Cheeku @ Virk, their total number being 10/15 and they had reached the main gate of the University, then from the side of Chandigarh-Rajpura road, a Verna car bearing No.PB139-C-0606, two vehicles, one Safari vehicle, while in colour and one Fortuner having no.PB-01-BK-0068, black in colour, were standing on Chandigarh-Rajpura road. Barinder Singh @ Bunty @ Boxed, Harinder Singh son of Mehal Singh resident of village Samaspur, Inderjit Singh son of Tehal Singh, resident of Jalalpur, Sukhi Baba resident of village Ratola near Sunam, Ritu Boxed, Bharti, Shishu Dhillon son of Dean working at Punjabi University, Hardeep Singh resident of Urban Estate, Patiala, Kaptan resident of Shutrana, Jinder, Rana, along with 10/12 other persons were standing there and when their vehicles reached near them, they started firing at them. One of the shot so fired, hit bumper of his car. When they came to know about firing, they steered away their vehicles to save their lives and all those persons had attacked them with an intention to murder them. The motive for the incident being that the accused party did not want them to organize the volleyball tournament. Subsequently, it came out that the assailants had fired at Zen car by mistake feeling that the persons of complainant party were travelling in them, resultantly, two students of B.Tech, namely Abhishek Kumar and Bharat Menon, got injured.

(3.) Si Gurpartap Singh recorded the statement of Jashanpartap Singh as Ex.PA and from the said statement, he found that it was a counter version of the incident regarding which an FIR No.91 dtd. 21/9/2011 for offence punishable under Ss. 307/148/149 IPC and 25 of the Arms Act had already been registered at Police Station Urban Estate, Patiala. Thereafter, he was of the view that from the statement of Jashanpartap Singh Virk, offences under Ss. 307/148/149 IPC and 25 of the Arms Act were disclosed and as such, this version be also investigating as a cross-case. For the purpose of entering the statement of Jashanpartap Singh in the Roznamcha, he appended his endorsement as Ex.PA/1 below that statement and sent it to Police Station Urban Estate, Patiala, through HC Dharmit Singh. The statement was thereafter, entered in the DDR vide Serial No.6 dtd. 21/9/2011.