KARNAIL SINGH Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Karnail Singh was tried in the Court of Additional Sessions Judge (II),Kangra, at DharamshalaDistrict for an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for causingthe death of Basant Singh. The learned Addl. Sessions Judge convicted theaccused under Section 302, I.P.C. and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment forlife and to pay a fine of Rs. 1OO0.00and in default thereof, to suffer rigorousimprisonment for 3 months. The fine if realised was ordered to be paid to thewidow Smt. Kaushalya Devi. Now the accused has come up in appeal before thisCourt.

(2.) We may briefly state the prosecution case. The accused as also deceased are the residents of same village Hada Mauza Fatehpur District Kangra. On 11/07/1991 at about 9.00 p.m. the accused came to the house of the deceased under the influence of liquor and started abusing him and when the deceased asked the accused not to do so, the accused threatened to kill him. However, after some altercation, the deceased went to the cow-shed, where he used to sleep. Smt. Kaushalya Devi wife of late Basant Singh and Smt. Rano Devi daughter-in-law slept in the verandah of their house. Basant Singh did not return home in the morning. Smt.Kaushalya Devi went to the cow-shed and found his dead body lying in the verandah. The dead body was having several injuries. On coming to know about the death of Basant Singh his widow Kaushalya Devi (PW 2) went to Police Station, Jwali to lodge the report but at a place Fatehpur, A.S.I. Krishan Chand (PW 16) met her who recorded her statement under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and sent the same for registration of the case.

(3.) The police machinery came into action. A.S.I. Krishan Chand visited the spot, prepared inquest papers (Ex. P-3), dispatched the corpus of the deceased Basant Singh to Civil Hospital, Nurpur for post-mortem. Dr. D. R. Rial (PW 1) conducted the post-mortem examination and opined that Basant Singh had died because of Asphyxia due to throttling. He found 12 injuries on the dead body.