STATE OF RAJASTHAN Vs. DARSHAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a murder reference made by the learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Sri Ganganagar, dated 17. 5. 99 in accordance with the provisions of Section 366 Cr. P. C. for confirmation of death sentence, awarded to accused Darshan Singh, having held him guilty of committing murder of Tota Singh and convicting him of offence u/sec. 302 IPC. The accused Darshan Singh has also challenged the conviction and sentence by way of filing an appeal through jail, which has been registered as D. B. Criminal Jail Appeal No. 294/1999 "darshan Singh vs. State of Rajasthan".

(2.) BRIEF facts of the case are that on 20. 03. 1998, PW 1 Gurdeep Singh lodged an oral F. I. R. at Police Station Sadul Shahar at 9. 15 P. M. stating inter alia that there was dispute between his father P. W. 3 Mohan Singh uncle Darshan Singh (accused) with respect to distribution of the land. In order to resolve the dispute, his father had approached his maternal grand father Tota Singh (deceased) residing in village Indrapura as it was understood that he will be able to make Darshan Singh understand. On the fateful day at about 5. 45 P. M. , his maternal grand father Tota Singh came to his house. At that time, he had gone to the house of Gora Singh, whose daughter was to be married. After 10-15 minutes, when he was returning to his house, he found that a big crowd had assembled in the lane. He rushed to his house fearing that some quarrel might not have taken place with Darshan Singh. When he reached to his house, he found that his maternal grand father was lying smeared with blood. His father Mohan Singh (PW 3), his mother Manjit Kaur (PW 2) any younger brother Bohad Singh (PW 8), sister Baint Kaur, uncle Chandra Singh and Bhola Singh were standing in the lane. He enquired from his father as to who caused injuries to his maternal grand father. Upon which, his father disclosed that while his uncle Darshan Singh was assaulting Bohad Singh, his maternal grand fa-ther, in order to save him, intervened. This enraged his uncle Darshan Singh. He gave a `barchhi' blow to Tota Singh and ran away. He also stated that his uncle Darshan Singh had also committed a murder about twenty years back and that he had returned from jail after having undergone the sentence. On this information, police registered a case for offence u/sec. 302 I. P. C. and proceeded with investiga-tion. PW 9 Bhan Singh, SHO, PS, Sadul Shahar, reached on the spot. He prepared the inquest. The dead body of Tota Singh was sent for post mortem. The accused was arrested. In pursuance of the information given by the accused, a blood stained `sela' was recovered. After usual investigation, police laid a charge-sheet against the accused Darshan Singh for the offence u/sec. 302 IPC.

(3.) WE have scanned the prosecution evidence carefully. P. W. 1 Gurdeep Singh has made a statement with respect to the incident as given in the F. I. R. He has stated that when he reached on the spot, his maternal grand father was dead. The incident is alleged to have taken place at about 5. 45 p. m. and he reached on the spot at about 6 P. M. The F. I. R. has been submitted at 9. 15 P. M. the distance between the police station and the place of incident is about 20 kms. It is also stated that after about 15 to 20 minutes, he left for Sadul Shahar for lodging the F. I. R. The efforts were made to arrange a jeep but as the same was not available, he had to go on foot. In our view, there is no delay in filing the F. I. R. Nothing has been elicited in the cross examination to disbelieve the testimony of this witness.