SHAHAB DIN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) VIDE impugned judgment dated 7. 3. 2007 of learned Principal Sessions Judge, Poonch, appellant shahab Din son of Mohd. Din, Caste Quershi, resident of Jallian, (hereinafter referred to as 'accused'), stands convicted under Sections 341/302 RPC and has been sentenced for life imprisonment under Section 302 rpc and one month under Section 341 RPC. Both the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently. The judgment of conviction has been sent to this Court for confirmation under Section 374 Cr. P. C. We, therefore, intend to dispose of Criminal Appeal. No. 4 of 2007 and Confirmation No. 2 of 2007. In brief, the case of the prosecution is as under:

(2.) MUNIR Hussain is the deceased in this case. His father is the first informant, who alleged that on 3. 6. 2002, the deceased was going to village Jallian to request the villagers to help him in cultivation of rice saplings. At about 4. 30 p. m. , when he was passing by the road adjoining the house of the accused at Jallian, he was assaulted by the accused with a danda which landed on his head, consequently, he fell down on the ground. Thereafter, the accused lifted a stone and struck the same repeatedly on the head, eye, abdomen and other parts of body of the deceased. He became unconscious was brought to the Police Station, Mandi by some persons who reached the spot. FIR was initially registered under Sections 341, 307 rpc. The police swung into action. The Investigating Officer prepared injury memo of the deceased and referred him to District hospital, Poonch. However, he died on the way. The offence was then converted from section 307 RPC to Section 302 RPC. After that the investigation was taken over by sho, who got the post-mortem conducted by the concerned doctor, went to the spot, prepared the seizure memo of the bloodstained earth and also lifted a stone from the place of occurrence. Accused was arrested by him, who, pursuant to his disclosure statement, got a danda (lathi) recovered. An opinion was sought from the doctor with regard to weapon vis-a-vis the injury and the doctor opined that the injury was caused with lathi only.

(3.) THE motive projected by the prosecution is that Atika Begum, the sister of the deceased had gone with her cattle in the vicinity of Government Primary School, azmabad, where the accused had tried to molest her and she went to the nearby fields to narrate the incident to her brother (deceased), who went to the accused to inquire about the said incident where a scuffle ensued between the deceased and the accused had allegedly threatened the deceased to teach him a lesson. In this regard, the prosecution has produced PW Bahar Din, who otherwise has been projected as a witness to the occurrence also, along with Ghulam ahmed, Gias Din and Abdul Ghani, the other eyewitnesses.