RANJEET SINGH Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is directed against the judgment passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Kangra at Dharamshala, vide which the appeal filed by the appellants (accused before learned Trial Court) was dismissed and judgment of conviction dtd. 5/7/2007 and order of sentence dtd. 6/7/2007 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Baijnath, District Kangra, H.P. (learned Trial Court) were upheld. Originally revision was filed by Ranjeet Singh and Mahinder Singh but Ranjeet Singh died during the pendency of the proceedings before this Court. (The parties shall hereinafter be referred to in the same manner as they were arrayed before the learned Trial Court for convenience).

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present revision are that the police presented a challan against the present petitioner and the co-accused for the commission of offences punishable under Sec. 429 of the Indian Penal Code and Sec. 27 of the Arms Act. It was asserted that the informant Suman Lata (PW1) was present in her home on 12/4/2006 at about 12 pm. Her dog was roaming in the courtyard of her house. Accused Ranjeet Singh was walking on the road. The dog barked at him. Ranjeet Singh complained to the informant that her dog was barking at him. The informant replied that the dog would not bite the accused. The accused Ranjeet Singh went to his home and brought a gun owned by the petitioner-Mahinder Singh. He shot the dog. The incident was witnessed by Neha Devi (PW2) and Sant Ram (PW3). The matter was reported to the police and FIR (Ext. PW1/A) was registered at the police station. Mohammad Arshad (PW7) conducted the investigation. He visited the spot and prepared the site plan (Ext.PW7/A). He seized the gun vide memo (Ext. PW4/B). He prepared a sketch of the gun (Ext. PW7/C) and put it in a cloth parcel. The parcel was sealed with seal 'A'. Seal Impression (Ext.PW7/B) was taken on a separate piece of cloth. An application (Ext.PW7/D) was filed for conducting the post-mortem examination of the dog. Dr. Sanjay Thakur (PW5) conducted the post-mortem examination of the dog and found that it had died due to injury caused by a high-velocity blunt object. He issued a report (Ext. PW5/A). Accused Mahinder produced his gun license (Ext. PW7/D) which was seized vide memo (Ext. PW4/A). The gun was sent to FSL, Junga for analysis. Rajesh Kumar (PW8) examined the gun and issued a report (Ext. PX) showing that the gun was fired. The statements of the remaining witnesses were recorded as per their version and after the completion of the investigation, the challan was prepared and presented before the learned Trial Court.

(3.) The learned Trial Court charged accused-Ranjeet Singh with the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 429 of IPC and Sec. 25(1-B) (a) of the Arms Act and Accused Mahinder Singh with the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 30 of the Arms Act, to which, the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.