RANDHIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF J AND K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Four accused namely Randhir Singh (AT), Jageer Singh (A2), Kartar Singh (A3) and Ajit Singh (A4) were put on trial for commission of the offences under Sections 302/34 RPC and 4/27 Indian Arms Act before the court of Sessions Judge, Udhampur. Learned Sessions Judge did not accept the case of the prosecution against three accused (A2 to A4) and acquitted them but convicted the accused Randhir Singh (Al) for commission of the offences under Sections 302 RPC and 4/27 Indian Arms Act by his judgment dated 29/8/2000. Learned Sessions Judge by his order dated 31/8/2000 sentenced accused Randhir Singh (Al) to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5,000.00 for commission of the offence under section 302 and in default of payment of fine directed the accused for undergoing further simple imprisonment for a period of six months. Learned Sessions Judge also sentenced the accused Randhir Singh for under-going imprisonment of four years and a fine of Rs. 1000.00 for the offence under Sections 4/27 Indian Arms Act and in case of default in the payment of fine directed for further simple imprisonment of two months. Both the sentences however were made to run concurrently.

(2.) Accused Randhir Singh(Al) has filed Criminal Appeal No. 20/2000 for challenging his conviction and sentence. The State has filed acquittal Appeal No. 54/2000, for challenging the acquittal of the accused Jageer Singh (A 2), Kartar Singh (A 3) and Ajeet Singh (A 4). Learned Sessions Judge has made Criminal Reference No. 29/2000 seeking confirmation of the sentence under section 374 Cr.P.C. The Criminal Appeal, acquittal appeal and Criminal Reference arise out of the same judgment, there-fore, are being taken together and disposed of by this Common Judgment.

(3.) Briefly put the story of the case of the prosecution is that P.W Deep Kumar was a dropout of the School situated at village Bodola, on 5/6/1998, along with his three friends, Sham Lal (Deceased), Gobind Ram (P.W) and Rajesh (P.W) went to the school for obtaining discharge certificate, which he needed for obtaining admission in another School at Udhampur. He approached (P.W) Kapoor Chand, teacher for issuance of the certificate, who told him that as the schools were about to close for Summer Vacations from 6/6/1998, so he should come after vacations and then all the four of them returned. It is the case of the prosecution that when they reached a place called Kamal Dange, all the four of them were intercepted by the four accused. Accused Kartar Singh (A3), who is the father of accused Randhir Singh (Al), enquired from (deceased) Sham Lal as to why he was blaming his son (Al) unnecessarily for teasing (P.W) Kamlesh Kumari. The deceased Sham Lal denied this but accused Kartar Singh, was not satisfied from his reply. It is also the case of the prosecution that then Kartar Singh (A3) caught hold of the right arm of the deceased while Jageer Singh (A2) held him of his left arm while Ajit Singh (A4) gave a Khokri to Randhir Singh (Al) for attacking the deceased. Kartar Singh (A3) then exhorted his son Randhir Singh (Al) to kill the deceased on which Randhir Singh (Al) inflicted a blow of the Khokri on the chest of the deceased causing a serious injury in consequence of which deceased fell down injured and bleeding profusely and died on spot. The com-panions of Sham Lal deceased when tried to intervene they were threatened, so they ran away.