Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision : September 22, 2006 1. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 State of Punjab Vs. Gurvail Singh alias Gela and another 2. Criminal Appeal No. 890-DB of 2005 Gurvail Singh alias Gela and others Vs. State of Punjab 3. Criminal Appeal No. 667-SB of 2005 Satnam Singh Vs. State of Punjab Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Virender Singh Hon'ble Mr. Justice A.N. Jindal Present : Ms. Baljeet Kaur Mann, Advocate, for the appellants. Mr. MS Sidhu, Senior Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. Mr. A.P.S.Randhawa, Advocate, for the complainant. Virender Singh, J. Vide this judgment we are disposing of the aforesaid Murder Reference and two appeals filed by four appellants, namely, Gurvail Singh Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -2- alias Gela, Satnam Singh, Amarjit Kaur and Jaj Singh. The learned Additional Sessions Judge (Adhoc) Amritsar vide impugned judgment dated 27.1.2005/5.2.2005, has awarded death sentence to Gurvail Singh alias Gela and Jaj Singh appellants whereas Amarjit Kaur wife of Jaswant Singh is awarded life imprisonment. Satnam Singh son of Jaswant Singh (declared Juvenile), the fourth accused after being convicted by the trial court was sent to Juvenile Justice Board, Faridkot for passing of appropriate sentence in accordance with law. The Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Faridabad, vide impugned order dated 18.3.2005 has sentenced him to five years commencing from the date of the order. Record reveals that this Court while admitting the appeal of Satnam Singh vide order dated 6.5.2005 had observed that ordinarily the appeal against an order of the Juvenile Board would lie before the Sessions Judge but since the trial of this case was completed by the Additional Sessions Judge who had recorded the conviction, therefore, his appeal was ordered to be heard by this Court only. Consequently, Criminal Appeal No. 667-SB of 2005 filed by him is being heard along with Criminal Appeal No. 890-DB of 2005 and Murder Reference. Another fact which needs mentioning is that after the case of Gurvail Singh and Jaj Singh was submitted to this Court for confirmation of the death sentence imposed upon them, the present Murder Reference was registered as Reference No. 3 of 2005. This Court, however, had not Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -3- appreciated the order of sentence passed by the trial court observing that provisions of section 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were ignored as the trial court was required to pass separate sentence on each of the charge which was framed against Gurvail Singh, Jaj Singh and Amarjit Kaur whereas only one sentence was imposed on the appellants for the murders of four persons, namely, Kulwant Singh, Sarabjit Kaur, Gurvinder Singh and Davinder Singh for which they were convicted. However, in the case of Satnam Singh, no irregularity was noticed. Consequently, vide order dated 8.9.2005, the order of sentence passed by the trial court in relation to Gurvail Singh alias Gela, Jaj Singh and Amarjit Kaur, was set aside and the case was remitted to the trial court for hearing the aforesaid three appellants on the question of sentence afresh. The appeal filed by Satnam Singh was segregated for the time being. The learned trial court thereafter heard the aforesaid three appellants once again with regard to quantum of sentence and passed the following order:- 1. Amarjit Kaur is sentenced as under:- i) Under Section 302/34 IPC for the murder of Kulwant Singh, committed by Jaj Singh, accused-convict in furtherance of the common intention, she is sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default to undergo two months R.I. ii)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Sarabjit Kaur, committed Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -4- by Satnam Singh in furtherance of their common intention, she is sentenced to life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default to undergo two months R.I. iii)Under section 302/34 IPC for the murder of Gurvinder Singh, committed by Gurvail Singh @ Gela in furtherance of their common intention, she is sentenced to life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default to undergo two months R.I. iv)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Davinder Singh, committed by Gurvail Singh @ Gela, in furtherance of their common intention, she is sentenced to life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default to undergo two months R.I. All her sentences to run concurrently. 2. Jaj Singh, is sentenced as under:- i) Jaj Singh is sentenced u/s 302 IPC to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default to undergo 2 months R.I. for the murder of Kulwant Singh, committed by him. ii)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Sarabjit Kaur committed by Satnam Singh in furtherance of their common intention, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -5- default two months R.I. iii)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Gurvinder Singh committed by Gurvail Singh in furtherance of their common intention, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default two months R.I. iv)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Davinder Singh committed by Gurvail Singh in furtherance of their common intention, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default two months R.I. 3. Gurvail Singh alias Gela is sentenced as under:- i) U/s 302 IPC for the murder of Gurvinder Singh, committed by him, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default, two months R.I. ii)U/s 302 IPC for the murder of Davinder Singh, committed by him, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default, two months R.I. iii)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Kulwant Singh, committed by Jaj Singh, in furtherance of their common intention, he is sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default, two months R.I. iv)U/s 302/34 IPC for the murder of Sarabjit Kaur, committed Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -6- by Satnam Singh, he is further sentenced to death and to pay fine of Rs 2000/- and in default, two months R.I. Since Gurvail Singh and Jaj Singh were sentenced to death, the learned trial court forwarded their case once again to this court for confirmation which is now registered as Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005. Kulwant Singh aged 40 years son of Sharam Singh (PW1, the first informant), Sarabjit Kaur aged 30 years wife of Kulwant Singh and his two sons Gurvinder Singh aged 13 years and Davinder Singh aged 11 have lost their lives in this cold blooded murder. From the appellant side except Gurvail Singh, the other three appellants are also from the family of Sharam Singh. They are wife and two sons of Jaswant Singh the other son of Sharam Singh. Appellant Gurvail Singh was working as servant with Amarjit Kaur in her fields ( in village parlance known as Siri). Sharam Singh had three sons, namely, Jaswant Singh, Balwant Singh and Kulwant Singh. Jaswant Singh and Balwant Singh had died before the occurrence. Sharam Singh had separated his sons and their families were living in their own house and he used to stay with Kulwant Singh (since deceased). Amarjit Kaur and her two sons (appellants herein) used to quarrel with Sharam Singh as they wanted to have the landed property of their share transferred to them and were suspecting that Sharam Singh was Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -7- under the influence of Kulwant Singh deceased. About 8/9 days prior to the occurrence, Jaj Singh, Satnam Singh and Gurvail Singh approached Sharam Singh and protested that despite their request made to him many times he was not agreeing to have the land of their share transferred to them and they had come to him for the last time and in case he will not transfer the land, they would not spare him and his son Kulwant Singh. On 20.8.2000, all the appellants were found sitting on a cot outside the house of Sharam Singh underneath trees talking that they had to teach Sharam Singh and Kulwant Singh a lesson. This is the motive projected by the prosecution which resulted into this incident. On the night intervening 20/21.8.2000, Sharam Singh PW1 was sleeping in drawing room (baithak) of his house and Kulwant Singh, Sarabjit Kaur, Gurvinder Singh and Davinder Singh were sleeping in the court-yard when at about 1/1.30 AM, he heard knocking at the door of the house and saw through the window in the electric light, appellants Jaj Singh armed with Datar (exhibited), Gurvail Singh alias Gela carrying Toka (exhibited), Satnam Singh having kirpan (exhibited) and Amarjit Kaur empty handed going towards deceased. Jaj Singh opened the assault and gave Datar blow to Kulwant Singh and his brother Satnam Singh inflicted kirpan blows to Sarabjit Kaur. Gurvail Singh who was armed with Toka started assaulting Gurvinder Singh and Davinder Singh. Amarjit Kaur was exhorting the appellants (three co-accused) that no one should be left alive Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -8- and they would take whole of the landed property. Sharam Singh requested them not to kill Kulwant Singh and others, upon which Amarjit Kaur shouted that after setting them (Kulwant Singh and others) right, they would take care of him (Sharam Singh) and came towards his drawing room (baithak). He bolted the door from inside which could not be opened by them and the appellants threatened him that in case he talked to any one or raise noise he would not be spared by them. They also chained the door of the drawing room (baithak) from outside. At day dawn Sharam Singh raised hue and cry which attracted Dilbagh Singh son of Bachan Singh who came there and opened the door of the baithak. All the aforesaid four persons were dead by that time and there were many injuries on their persons. Sharam Singh after leaving Dilbagh Singh at the scene of crime left for the Police Station, when SI Mandip Singh (PW7) SHO of Police Station Raja Sansi met him at the bridge of the canal in the area of Bagge Kalan; who recorded his statement Ex. PA at 8.30 AM; endorsed it vide Ex. PA/1, upon which formal FIR Ex. PA/3 was recorded at 9.30 AM under sections 302/34 IPC at Police Station Raja Sansi (Amritsar). The distance between Police Station and the place of occurrence is 7 kilometers whereas the distance between Bagge Kalan and place of occurrence is 2 kilometers. Special report was sent by ASI Iqbal Singh (not produced) through Constable Jagir Singh PW4 to the Ilaqa Magistrate (SDJM, Ajnala) which reached him at 11.00 AM on 21.8.2000 itself. The distance between the Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -9- two is 14 kilometers as is clear from the statement of aforesaid Jagir Singh who otherwise has tendered his affidavit Ex. PJ. After taking up the investigation, SI Mandip Singh sent a requisition for sending the dog squad and a photographer. He along with Sharam Singh reached the place of occurrence, recorded statement of Dilbagh Singh who was found sitting there. The dog squad also reached there. ASI Kapal Dev (PW6) a Police photographer clicked certain photographs of the scene of occurrence. Inquest reports of all the four dead bodies were prepared and thereafter sent them for the purpose of post mortem examination through police officials. Blood stained earth was lifted from the place of occurrence which was put in a small box (dabbi) Exh. PN/1 and sealed with the seal of 'MS'. The same was taken into possession vide memo Ex. PN/2. Rough site plan Ex. PN/3 was also prepared. One driving licence in the name of Jaj Singh appellant bearing No. 23112 was recovered from the place of occurrence and the same was also taken into possession vide memo Ex. PN/4. Two police officials were deputed for the arrest of the appellants but no clue could be found even after dog squad was put in operation. All the accused were found absconding from their respective residence. After the post mortem examination, the clothes of the deceased and other articles which were produced by the police officials to SI Mandip Singh were taken into possession. They were duly sealed and thereafter the sealed parcels were deposited with MHC. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -10- Satnam Singh and Gurvail Singh were subsequently arrested on 25.8.2000 whereas appellant Amarjit Kaur was arrested on 26.8.2000. During his investigation Gurvail Singh disclosed on 27.8.2000 that he had kept concealed one toka and one shirt stained with blood at concealed place near the bank of canal. His disclosure statement Ex. PO was recorded which was thumb marked by him and attested by two police officials. Similarly Satnam Singh had also suffered his disclosure statement Ex. PK in which he had disclosed the police the place where he had kept concealed kirpan and his blood stained shirt. His statement was also signed by him and the said two police officials. Pursuant to the said disclosure statement toka Ex. P31 and blood stained shirt Ex. P32 was got recovered by Gurvail Singh. The same were also taken into possession vide Ex. PO/1. Other formalities were also completed at the spot. Satnam Singh appellant also got recovered kirpan Ex. P33 and blood stained shirt Ex. P34 and the same were taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex. PQ/1. During the investigation SI Mandip Singh recorded statement of Gurnam Singh Clerk of SDM Office, Tarn Taran about the driving licence issued in the name of Jaj Singh. He also got prepared scaled site plan Ex. PB from Rishi Ram Draftsman. Photographs of the scene of occurrence clicked by ASI Kapal Dev were also taken into possession. The developed photographs are Ex. P35 to Ex. P42 and their negatives are Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -11- Ex. P43 to Ex. P50. Till the completion of the investigation, Jaj Singh appellant could not be arrested and as such he was declared as a proclaimed offender. All the appellants except Jaj Singh were charge sheeted under section 302 IPC substantively and with the aid of section 34 IPC. It would be worth mentioning here that Jaj Singh appellant was arrested on 5.9.2001 after the trial was in progress and statement of certain prosecution witnesses including Sharam Singh, the first informant was already recorded. After his arrest supplementary challan was presented against him and was tagged with the main case. Thereafter all the four appellants were charged as under:- “Jaj Singh accused was charge sheeted substantively for the murder of Kulwant Singh U/s 302 IPC and other accused were charged u/s 302/34 IPC; Satnam Singh accused was charged substantively for the murder of Sarabjit Kaur u/s 302 IPC and other accused were charged sheeted u/s 302 r/w section 34 IPC; Gurvail Singh was charge sheeted subsequently u/s 302 IPC for the commission of the murder of Gurvinder Singh and again u/s 302 IPC subsequently for the murder of Davinder Singh whereas other accused were charge sheeted u/s 302/34 IPC. “ Before framing of fresh charge, as indicated above the Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -12- prosecution had examined Sharam Singh PW1, Dr. Gurmanjit Rai PW2, HC Sarwan Singh PW3, C. Jagir Singh PW4, C. Virsa Singh PW5 and ASI Kapal Dev PW6 and after that the prosecution has examined Sharam Singh PW1, Rishi Ram Draftsman PW2, Dr. Gurmanjit Rai PW3, C. Jagir Singh PW4, C. Virsa Singh PW5, HC Sarwan Singh PW6, SI Mandip Singh PW7, ASI Kapal Dev PW8, Dr. Amarjit Singh PW9, Gurnam Singh Clerk PW10, ASI Harjit Singh PW10. Besides examining the aforesaid witnesses, the prosecution has tendered report of Forensic Science Laboratory Ex. PO. Dilbagh Singh PW and Sahib Singh PW were given up as having been won over. Sharam Singh the complainant (FIR lodger) has given the detailed version as referred to in his initial statement which is the basis of FIR. Rishi Ram Draftsman had visited the place of occurrence and had prepared the scaled site plan Ex. PB on the pointing out of Sharam Singh. Dr. Gurmanjit Rai had conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Kulwant Singh on 21.8.2000 at 8.00 AM and found the following injuries:- 1. Incised chopped wound horizontally placed on face and mouth, 16 x 6 cms in size. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -13- On dissection: Underlying muscle, mendible, maxilla teeth and tongue were found cut. Clotted blood was present. 2. Incised chopped wound 18 x 7 cms obliquely placed, on front and both sides of neck. On dissection: Soft tissues, muscles, vessels, trachea, oesophagus, larynx were found cut. Clotted blood was present. 3. 13 x 5 cms. Incised chopped wound horizontally placed on top of left shoulder. On dissection: Underlying clavicle, scapula and humerous bones were found cut fractured. Muscles were found cut. 4. Incised chopped wound 12 x 5 cms on front of left side of chest, 4 cms below injury No.3. It was horizontally placed and muscle deep. Clotted blood was present. 5. Incised chopped wound 21 x 6 cms on back of left forearm and left hand. Vertically placed upto knuckle of index finger. On dissection: Underlying bones of hand, wrist and index finger were found cut fractured. Clotted blood was Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -14- present. 6. Incised chopped wound 11 x 4 cms on front of right shoulder obliquely placed. Muscles were found cut and clevical was found cut fractured. Clotted blood was present. 7. 5 x 1.5 cm incised wound on top of right shoulder, horizontally placed. It was muscle deep and clotted blood was present. According to his opinion, all the injuries were ante mortem in nature and the cause of death of Kulwant Singh was severance of neck structure (trachea, larynx, carotid vessels, vital organs) According to him injury no. 2 was sufficient for causing death in the ordinary course of nature. He has proved post mortem report Ex. PF. The aforesaid witness has also conducted the post mortem on the dead body of Sarabjit Kaur on the same day at 4.55 PM and found the following injuries on her person:- 1. 17 x 6 cms incised wound obliquely placed in front of left side of chest and upper arm in its upper one third, clevical and head of left humerus bone was found cut. Muscles were found cut. Clotted blood was present. 2. 20 x 7 cms obliquely placed incised chopped wound Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -15- was present on left side of neck extending from back to chin. On dissection: underlying muscles, vessels, vertebrae spinal cord, trachea and carotid vessels were found cut. Clotted blood was present. 3. Incised wound 14 x 2 cms with 5 cms long tail on medial end of wound, on left side of neck just below injury No.2. It was muscle deep. Clotted blood was present. 4. Incised wound 2 x 0.5 cm on mid clevicular point of left side of chest. It was skin deep. 5. Linear reddish brown abrasion 8 cms in size present on middle of chest, obliquely placed. 6. Incised chopped wound 7 x 4.5 cms on front of right wrist, obliquely placed. On dissection: Underlying tendons, muscles, bones and vessels were found cut. The hand was hanging by a flap of skin only. 7. Incised chopped wound 14 x 5 cms on face and mouth. Mandible, maxilla, tongue and soft tissues were found cut. It was obliquely placed and clotted blood was present. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -16- 8. 13 x 6 cms incised wound was present on left side of fore-head and temporal region of head, scalp was found sliced off. Ear pinna was found cut and the wound was scalp deep. 9. Incised wound 9 x 5 cms on back of left side of head, 3 cms behind lobule of ear. It was scalp deep. Clotted blood was present. In this case also the cause of death was severance of neck structure and injuries no. 2 and 3 were found to be sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. He proved the post mortem report of deceased Sarabjit Kaur Ex. PG/1. We at this stage would like to reproduce the injuries on the person of Davinder Singh and Gurvinder Singh as noticed by Dr. Amarjit Singh who had conducted the autopsy on their dead bodies. This witness noticed the following injuries on the person of Davinder Singh :- 1. 15 x 5 cms incised chopped wound was present on right side of face and head extending from right ala of nose to hair line behind ear pinna. Ear Pinna in its middle, underline muscles, vessels, maxillary bone, mastoid bone and occipital bone was found cut. Clotted blood was present. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -17- 2. 8 x 6 cm incised chopped wound was present on front and right side of neck. Underlying muscles, vessels, trachea, spinal cord and vertebra was found cut. Clotted blood was present. 3. 6 x 5 cms incised wound was present on front of left shoulder, 1 cm below tip of shoulder. Underlying muscles and humerrus bone was found cut. Clotted blood was present. 4. 2 x 1.5 cms incised wound was present on inner aspect of right hand, 3.5 cm. Distal to wrist. Clotted blood was present. According to the opinion of the doctor, the severance of neck structure was sufficient for causing death in the ordinary course of nature. He proved the post mortem report Ex. PW2. On the dead body of Gurvinder Singh, Dr. Amarjit Singh noticed the following injuries:- 1. 19 x 5.5 cms incised chopped wound was found on face 1 cm above upper lip extending from front of left ear pinna to right cheek, Underlying muscles, vessels, maxilla and lower jaw bone was found cut. Clotted blood was present. Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -18- 2. 7.5 cms. Incised chopped wound was found present on front of neck, underlying muscle, vessels, trachea, spinal cord were found cut. Clotted blood was present. 3. 3.5 x 1.5 cm incised wound was present on back of right hand at knuckle of medial three fingers and muscle deep. Clotted blood was present. 4. 6 x 4.5 cms incised chopped wound was present on medial aspect of right upper arm and posterior axillary fold. Underlying muscles, vessels and humerous was found cut. Clotted blood was present. 5. 5 x 4.5 cms incised wound was present on top of right shoulder and muscle deep. Clotted blood was present. In the opinion of the doctor, all the injuries were ante mortem in nature and cause of death was because of severance of the neck structure as a result of injury no. 2 which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. He proved the post mortem report of Gurvinder Singh Ex. PN/2. HC Sarwan Singh is formal witness who has proved Ex. PH. Constable Jagir Singh has also tendered his affidavit Ex. PJ. This police official was handed over the special report for the purpose of delivering it to the Ilaqa Magistrate. He states that the police report was Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005 -19- handed over to him at 10.30 AM. He also gives the distance between Raja Sansi and Ajnala as 14 kms. Constable Virsa Singh is a witness of formal character who has tendered his affidavit. ASI Kapal Dev Photographer PW6 has proved the photographs clicked at the place of occurrence and their negatives. He states that he had reached the place of occurrence at 9.30 AM. SI Mandip Singh is the Investigating Officer of this case. The entire investigation conducted by him is already depicted in the preceding paras. Gurnam