RAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused appellant Ran Singh stands convicted and sentenced as below vide judgment dated 08.12.2011 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhadra, District Hanumangarh in Sessions Case No.12/2010:

(2.) Being aggrieved of his conviction and sentences, the appellant has preferred the instant appeal under Sec. 374(2) Cr.P.C.

(3.) The prosecution case emanates from the hand-written report (Ex.P/1) submitted by Satveer (PW-1) to the SHO, Police Station Bhadra on 22.06.2010 wherein, it was alleged that the informant's brother Krishan Kumar and sister-in-law Saraswati (Bhabhi) were residing in the Village Bojasar, Tehsil Bhadra, District Hanumangarh. Their son Rohtash is employed in the RAC and is posted at Bikaner and the daughter Manju is married and used to live at her matrimonial home. The informant claims to have received information that Krishan Kumar and Saraswati had been murdered in the night. On this, the informant reached the place of incident and saw the dead bodies of his brother and sister-in-law lying in the chowk of the house with wounds on their necks that seemed to him to have been inflicted by means of a sharp object. Blood was splattered around the cots and on the floor. The walls were also stained with blood. Krishan Kumar's body was lying on the cot whereas, that of Saraswati was lying on the floor. The informant inquired from the neighbours on which, he found that his nephews Sunil and Govind had left Krishan Kumar's house after watching television in the night at about 11 o' clock. Thereafter, Krishan Kumar and Saraswati locked the house and went to sleep after switching on the cooler. At about 1 o' clock in the night, Hariram, the maternal nephew of the informant, heard the cries of a woman on which, he called Arjun. They tried to look around but did not find or see anyone. Krishan Kumar's house was locked from inside and the cooler was running. In the morning at about 6 o' clock, the buffaloes had started grunting on which, Sunil and Hariram, tried to look inside the house by scaling the wall and saw the deadbodies of Krishan and Saraswati lying in the courtyard. Thereafter, they let the villagers know of the incident and the police was informed. The informant expressed his suspicion with regard to the said incident sating that some unknown persons had trespassed into the house and had murdered his brother and sister-in-law. The written report to this effect was submitted by Shri Satveer to the SHO Dinesh Rajora at the scene of occurrence on 22.06.2010 at 07.30 am. On the basis of this report, an FIR.No.308/2010 was registered at the Police Station Bhadra for the offences under Sections 450 and 302 Penal Code and investigation was commenced. During the course of investigation, the dead bodies were subjected to postmortem. The site inspection plan and other memoranda, were prepared and the blood stained pieces of earth, etc. were secured. The apparels worn by the deceased and a clump of human hair gripped in the hand of Smt. Saraswati were also seized. During the course of investigation, Satveer was examined under Sec. 161 Crimial P.C. and he alleged that the villagers had seen his nephew Ran Singh son of Mangilal loitering around the scene of occurrence with an axe and that he was missing thereafter. He further alleged that a dispute relating to throwing of garbage in a plot was going on between Ran Singh and Krishan Kumar and thus, a suspicion was cast that Ran Singh might have murdered the two deceased. The appellant Ran Singh was arrested 22.06.2010 vide arrest memo (Ex.P/13). The I.O. recorded his informations under Sec. 27 of the Evidence Act (Ex.P/44 and Ex.P/45) and recovered his blood stained pants and a blood stained axe vide seizure memos (Ex.P/14 and Ex.P/16). Statements of Banwari and Prahlad were recorded by the investigating officer under Sec. 161 Crimial P.C. on 23.06.2010. Banwari alleged that he saw the appellant going towards the house of Krishan Kumar with an axe in his hand. He returned a little later and at that time, he was empty-handed. Prahlad alleged that he had heard some cries in the night on which, he came out of his home and saw Ran Singh jumping out from the house of Krishan Kumar and going towards his own house. He tried to confront Ran Singh but, he did not reply.