(1.) SEWA Singh son, of Veer Bhan Singh aged 30 years resident. of village Jakhlan was found lying dead near the Roda Railway Crossing Village Harchandpur in Police Station, Dhuri, district Sangrur, on 10th April, 1986 by his son-in-law Didar Singh accused-appellant; who got a case registered with Dhuri Police under Section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code suspecting it to be a case of truck accident. In the course of investigation, the police reached the conclusion that Didar Singh along with his co-accused Ranjit, Singh and Dhanna Singh in pursuance of their common intention and criminal conspiracy had got the deceased killed through the instrumentality of Gurmail Singh their co-accused and a truck driver, who had intentionally, run over the deceased underneath his truck No. PNL 2371 around 7.00 P. M. on 9th April, 1986 after being promised a payment of Rs. 7,000/- for doing so even though only Rs. 3,000/- out of it were actually paid as advance and the balance still remains to be paid as yet. Co-accused Ranjit Singh is another son-in-law of the deceased. Third co-accused Dhanna Singh is an electrician through whose instrumentality the two sons-in-law of the deceased are alleged to have contacted the 4th co-accused Gurmail Singh. All the four co-accused aforesaid are alleged to have hatched a conspiracy of getting Sewa Singh killed from Gurmail Singh as aforesaid in pursuance of their common intention. Hence their prosecution under section 302 read with section 34 and section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. The offence was changed from, section 304-A to section 302 read with section 34 and section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code by D.S,P. Harbhajan Singh P.W. II on the basis of the statements made to him by Piara Singh P.W. 3 and Karam Singh P.W. 8 under section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
(2.) ON being charged with the commission of offences under sections 302 read with section 34 and section 109 of the Indian Penal Code, all the four accused pleaded not guilty there to and claimed to be tried. Vide its impugned judgment dated 13th November, 1987 learned trial court acquitted accused Dhanna Singh and Ranjit Singh, convicted accused Didar Singh under section 109 read with section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and co-accused Gurmail Singh under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Didar Singh was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay Rs. 2000/- as fine. In default of payment of fine he was ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of two years. Gurmail Singh was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and to pay Rs. 1000/- as fine. In default of payment of fine he was ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of one year. Feeling dissatisfied with the aforesaid impugned Judgment of the learned trial court both the convicted-accused have individually come up in appeal to this court. Criminal Appeal No. 571 DB of 1987 has been filed by Didar Singh and Criminal, Appeal No. 63-DB of 1988 has been filed by Gurmail Singh. Both these appeals arise out of the same judgment on the charge of conspiracy and common intention and are, therefore being decided together.
(3.) DR . Kamindra Nath Sharma P.W. 2 asserted that out of nine injuries detected by him on the person of the deceased in the course of postmortem examination conducted by him on the dead body of the deceased at 2.00 P.M. on 10th April, 1986 injuries No. 1, 7 and 8 were ante-mortem while injuries No. 2 to 6 and 9 set out the post-mortem report all the six were post-mortem injuries. This fact alone conclusively establishes that deceased Sewa Singh was not killed in truck accident but was lying killed on the road before being allegedly run over by the truck. Nothing has been brought on record as to who killed the deceased, when where and how. In result the charge of abetting Gurmail Singh to kill the deceased underneath his truck levelled against accused-appellant Didar Singh falls to the ground. Unless the principal accused responsible for killing Sewa Singh is found and named the charge under section 109 read with section 302 of the Indian Penal Code levelled against Didar Singh is rendered nugatory. Similarly by running over the deadbody underneath his truck Gurmail Singh cannot be held guilty of the commission of the offence under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code.