CHAMAN LAL Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused Chaman Lal and Parkash Chand have challenged the judgment dated 21-9-1990 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Mandi, whereby they were convicted of an offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The victim was one Sh. Lobhi Ram resident of village Goda Gagal, Tehsil Sundemagar, District Mandi, who was murdered.

(2.) The prosecution case is that on November 22, 1988 at 8.00 A.M. the dead body of Sh. Lobhi Ram was noticed by the villagers of village Goda Gagal in front of the house of Soju Ram (P.W.4).

(3.) The prosecution produced fifteen witnesses. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and gone through the record. Out of the fifteen witnesses produced by the prosecution, Churamani (P.W.1) and Soju Ram (P.W.4) are eye witnesses to a part of the occurrence. Churamani has corroborated his statement given in the F.I.R. As his statement was recorded after about a year in the Court, some minor discrepancies have crept in but these are not material. Though in the F.I.R. he has stated that the accused had dragged Sh. Lobhi Ram out of the house of Soju Ram and taken him to the court yard, yet, in his statement in the Court, he has named only Chaman Lal accused. He has also omitted to mention that the accused had dragged Sh. Lobhi Ram from the courtyard to the road below. But his statement is consistent that he saw both the accused giving blows and kicks with their shoes in the house as well as the compound of Soju Ram till he left that place to his house. He has further stated that he had noticed the corpse of Sh. Lobhi Ram near the house of Soju Ram in the morning on next day when he was going to lodge a report with the Police. He has also mentioned in his statement in the Court that on return to his house, he had told his mother that the accused had given beatings to Sh. Lobhi Ram. The material part of his statement is not shattered in the cross-examination. He has denied the suggestion put to him that it was he who had given beatings to the deceased and the accused had intervened to save Sh. Lobhi Ram. He has also denied the suggestion that he had gone to the house of Soju Ram for drinking liquor and had gone tipsy alongwith the accused and Sh. Lobhi Ram.