(1.) Accused Sukhvinder Singh was tried for attempting to commit murder of his real brother Kashmiri Lal and the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Solan by judgment dated 8-3-1989/9-3-1989 convicted him under Section 307 I.P.C. and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/ - in default of which to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months. He preferred this appeal against the impugned judgment.
(2.) The material facts giving rise to this appeal are thus :- Kashmiri Lal is the real brother of the accused. They belong to District Patiala in the State of Punjab. Kashmiri Lal had been pulling Riksha at Patiala before the occurrence. His wife Smt. Santosh Devi, however, was employed as Sweepress in Military Hospital, Patiala. The in-Laws of Kashmiri Lal reside at Subathu, a small Cantonment of District Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The accused had been living with the victim (PW 2) at Patiala.
(3.) On 4-10-1987, the accused coined a pretext and fabricated a ground to accompany his brother Kashmiri Lal to Subathu from Patiala. In that attempt he disclosed to his brother that his (brother's) in-Laws were to lay the foundation stone of their new house and as such the presence of the victim was required at Subathu imminently. The victim replied to the accused that the bus bound for Subathu had already left from Patiala at 4 p.m. and as such no bus was available for them to reach the destination. The accused prevailed upon the victim and offered suggestion that they would stay at Dharampur for the night in case they failed to reach Subathu. Ultimately, both of them reached Chandigarh from Patiala. The accused slipped away from the Bus Stand at Chandigarh and remained absent for half an hour from there. The victim kept waiting during the absence of the accused and ultimately at about 7 p.m. both of them boarded a bus for Dharampur as no direct bus for Subathu was available at that time at Chandigarh. After reaching Dharampur, both of them started their journey to Subathu on foot.