GUDU RAM Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Gudu Ram has preferred this appeal against the judgment of the Sessions Court, whereby he has been convicted of offence punishable, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.2000/-; in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months.

(2.) FIRST , the prosecution version may be noticed. PW-2 Sheetal Singh, an employee of Himachal Road Transport Corporation, was posted in the workshop of the said Corporation at Taradevi. He had been residing in village Taradevi in some rented accommodation. His brother Jai Pal Singh (PW-1) and deceased Dalip Singh, who was his cousin, also started residing with him, about a year prior to the occurrence (the Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? occurrence took place on the night intervening 12th and 13th November, 2003). About a week prior to the occurrence, appellant Gudu, a cousin of the wife of PW-2 Sheetal Singh, also joined them. On the fateful night, PW-2 Sheetal Singh was on duty in the workshop at Taradevi. Around 8 PM, appellant Gudu, brought a bottle of whisky. The three planned to cook meat for the dinner. PW-1 Jai Pal Singh and deceased Dalip Singh then brought a chicken from the market. Deceased started cooking the chicken meat. At the same time, all the three started drinking whisky brought by the appellant. After consuming two pegs, the deceased declined to consume more liquor. The appellant insisted that he took more. When the deceased did not relent, there was a brawl. PW-2 Sheetal Singh intervened and there was a truce. After some time, PW-1 Jai Pal Singh went out to urinate. When he returned, he saw the deceased and the appellant scuffling. He then asked the deceased to accompany him to Taradevi workshop where PW-2 Sheetal Singh was on duty that night so that he (the deceased) could spend the night there, to escape the fury of the appellant. The two then started towards Taradevi workshop. When they had walked a distance of about 50-60 yards, the appellant appeared from behind and hit PW-1 Jai Pal Singh with a Thapi Ext.P-1 and then threw him downwards in the bushes (Thapi is a wooden object shaped like a cricket bat used for beating clothes while washing them). Thereafter, the appellant hit Dalip Singh on the head with the same Thapi and also pushed him down into the bushes. PW-1 Jai Pal Singh did not sustain any serious injury. So he was able to get up and went to the workshop. There he informed PW-2 Sheetal Singh about the incident. The two brothers then went to their rented residence. Neither the appellant nor the deceased was there. Then they went to the site where the deceased was hit with Thapi and pushed down. The deceased was found lying in a pool of blood flowing from his head down the road at a depth of 7-8 feet. The two brothers managed to carry him to their rented accommodation. Then an ambulance was called and the deceased was taken to the hospital by PW-1 Jai Pal Singh. Sheetal Singh went back to the workshop. At the hospital, Dalip Singh died after sometime. Postmortem examination was conducted by PW-16 Dr. Uvi Tyagi. He noticed two contusions on the forehead 2 cms above left eye brow and 2.5 cms apart from each other. Size of each of the two contusions was 1 cm. Colour was bluish. The doctor also noticed greyish abrasion over the root of the nose measuring 2.5 cms, brownish in colour. The doctor also noticed diffused contusion over all the occipital area and left temporal region with collection of blood. Multiple linear fractures of occipital bone, left temporal bone and right temporal bone were also noticed. On reflecting the skull cap, laceration of bone over occipital lobe area and posterior parts of both the parietal bones with sub dural hemorrhage and sub-arachnoidal, was also noticed. The doctor opined that the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock as a result of ante-mortem head injury and the death appeared to have occurred immediately after the infliction of the injury. The doctor also opined that the injury could have been caused by means of Thapi Ext.P-1, which was in three broken pieces when shown to him. Police was informed telephonically by the authorities of the hospital. PW-14 Piyare Lal, Sub Inspector, rushed to the hospital, where he recorded the statement Ext.P-1 of PW-1 Jai Pal Singh and forwarded that statement to the Police Station for formal registration of the case. Case was registered vide FIR Ext. PO. Investigation of the case was conducted by PW-17 Sandeep Dhawal. After the inquest he got the postmortem of the dead body conducted. He also visited the spot and found three pieces of Thapi Ext.P-1. He also noticed blood in the bushes down the road. PW-15 Padam Dev, Head Constable, was deputed to arrest the appellant from his village in Rohru area. He went to Police Station, Rohru on ...4... 14.11.2003, where the appellant had already been brought by Rohru police from his village. He arrested him and brought him to Police Station, Boileauganj (Shimla), where the case had been registered.

(3.) LEARNED counsel representing the appellant submitted that the trial Court did not appreciate the evidence of the prosecution properly inasmuch as it believed the statement of PW-1 Jai Pal Singh in spite of the fact that he was a hostile witness, he had made contradictory statements in the same breath and there were inherent contradictions in his statement. He submitted that in the examination-in-chief PW-1 Jai Pal Singh stated that he saw the appellant hitting the deceased with a Thapi, but in the cross-examination he stated that he did not see him dealing any blow to the deceased because he himself had already been pushed down the road edge into the bushes. He further submitted that PW-1 Jai Pal Singh, per his testimony, took PW-2 Sheetal Singh to his house first, even though according to him, the deceased had been hit with a Thapi and pushed down into the bushes at a place falling on the way from the workshop to the residence. It was also submitted that a brother of the deceased, namely, PW-7 Rajinder Singh, had very categorically stated that he suspected the involvement of PW-1 Jai Pal Singh and PW-2 Sheetal Singh in the killing of his brother.