STATE OF H.P. Vs. DAVENDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RESPONDENTS were sent up for trial for an offence punishable under Section 436 read with Section 34 IPC for allegedly committing an offence of mischief by fire, by setting ablaze a thatched structure of PW-1 Udhmi Devi, on 13th July, 1990 at 12 noon.

(2.) CASE was registered against the respondents at the instance of PW-1 Udhmi Devi, who alleged that around 12 in the noon on 13th July, 1990, all the three respondents came to her thatched structure, where her husband used to run a small shop and threatened her to remove the articles kept in the structure and vacate the same. She further reported that when she told the respondents that her husband was not there and they should wait for him, the respondents threatened to set the structure on fire and soon thereafter one of the Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? respondents lighted a match-stick, another respondent provided a piece of paper, which was then lighted with the help of lighted match- stick, and then the structure was set on fire with that lighted piece of paper.

(3.) TRIAL Court, on the conclusion of the trial, acquitted all the three respondents, holding that the evidence of the prosecution was self-contradictory.