JASWANT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a revision petition against the order of the Additional Sessions Judge, Faridkot maintaining the conviction of the petitioner.

(2.) The petitioner herein is Jaswant Singh. He has a brother by the name of Kulwant Singh. Both were convicted and sentenced Kulwant Singh did not file any appeal whereas Jaswant Singh did before the Additional Sessions Judge, Faridkot. On dismissal of his appeal, he has come to this Court. The main effort of his learned Counsel is to distinguish the case of Jaswant Singh from that of Kulwant Singh in the matter of sharing the common intention.

(3.) The prosecution case is that Charanjit Kaur a sister of Jaswant Singh and Kulwant Singh accused had got involved with one Amarjit Singh. Amarjit Singh procured a statement of Charanjit Kaur in Court on the strength of which he was keeping Charanjit Kaur in his house as his wife. Both the accused persons did not take this episode kindly. It is alleged that on the intervening night of 3rd and 4th October, 1982, at about 10.00 p.m., both the accused trespassed into the house of Amarjit Singh. The immediate available inmates of the house then were Paramjit Singh, a brother of Amarjit Singh, Mithu Singh, a cousin of Amarjit Singh, and Mukhtiar Singh, the father of Amarjit Singh. They were lying on their cots. Amarjit Singh and Charanjit Kaur were asleep in the inner apartmentS. paramjit Singh, Mithu Singh and Mukhtiar singh were engaged in talk. Both the accused armed with Kirpans came and told the inmates that they had come to teach them a lesson for keeping their sister in the house. Thereafter, as goes the prosecution version, Jaswant Singh, petitioner, gave two simple Kirpan blows on the person of Paramjit Singh and one simple Kirpan blow on Mithu Singh. These injuries were in the region of arms of both the victims. Kulwant Singh gave two Kirpan blows on the person of Mithu singh, one hitting him on the right side of the face. This injury was grievous whereas the other one was simple. So, in all, five injuries were given. On alarm raised, the accused left the spot with their respective weapons. It was a moonlit night and the prosecution witnesses allegedly had no difficulty in identifying the accused This version of the prosecution became the subject of an First Information Report. The injured witnesses were attended to by Dr. S.P. Singh at Civil Hospital, Muktsar, and he prepared their medico-legal reports with the aforementioned results. It was on these allegations that the petitioners were sent up for trial.