CHAND SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal filed by Chand Singh against the judgment of the Sessions Judge, Shri Ganganagar dated 21-4-1972 by which the appellant was convicted under section 302 read with section 34 Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The incident that led to the arrest and the prosecution of the appellant may be briefly stated as follows :

(3.) We have carefully perused the record and heard Mr. Balwant Roy Arora, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. N. S. Acharya Public Prosecutor for the State. Firstly it has been contended by Mr. Arora that the trial Judge committed a grave error in convicting Chand Singh appellant under section 302 read with section 34 IPC. specially when he had disbelieved the testimony of solitary eyewitness Shri Nandsingh P. W. 1 and observed while acquitting Raisingh-co-accused that the presnce of the said eyewitness at the time and place of occurrence was highly doubtful. It was further urged that if the evidence of the single eye witness Shri Nandsingh goes away and is held incredible the other evidence relating to the appellant's extra-judicial confession before Kartarsingh is per in sufficient to sustain a conviction for the offence of murder. Mr. N. S. Acharya, on the other hand, strenuously urged before us that the evidence of Nandsingh P. W. 1 though not believable by the trial Judge against Raisingh co-accused, is worthy of credence against the appellant and there is no reason to discard it so far as it proves the complicity of the appellant in the commission of the crime. Mr. N, S. Acharya put forward another contention that if the evidence of Nandsingh P.W. 1 is totally discarded, there is reliable evidence of Kartar Singh in proof of the extra-judicial confession which was made by the appellant before the witness soon after the murder of Jaswantrai deceased. According to the Public Prosecutor the dead body of Jaswantrai was found lying on a cot in the house of the appellant and the appellant could not afford reasonable explanation for the injuries which led to the death of the former at his house.