IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH SHIMLA Cr. Appeal No.45 of 1995 Decided on: December 15, 2009 State of HP …Appellant Versus Surinder Dutt …Respondent Coram The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Surjit Singh, Judge. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Surinder Singh, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 For the Appellant : Mr. P.K. Sharma, Addl. Advocate General with Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Assistant Advocate General. For the Respondent : Surjit Singh, Judge (oral) State has appealed against the judgment dated 28.2.1994 of learned Sessions Judge, Chamba, whereby respondent Surinder Dutt, who was tried for offence, under Section 302 IPC, has been acquitted. 2. Prosecution case, as per evidence on record, may be summed up thus. In the month of October, 1991, PW-1 Radha was admitted in Civil Hospital, Chamba, for treatment of some ailment, she had been suffering from. Her husband deceased Kishan Bahadur had been attending upon her. On 25.10.1991, Radha’s husband, deceased Kishan Bahadur, went to the hospital in the evening to attend upon PW-1 Radha. Before that he had taken his meals in the bazaar. At Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? …2… 7.30 p.m., PW-1 Radha felt urge for urinating. She asked the deceased to take her to the toilet. When Radha went inside the toilet, deceased, who also felt urge to pass urine, urinated outside the toilet. Respondent allegedly saw him urinating outside the toilet and started slapping him. In the meanwhile, PW-1 Radha also came out of the toilet. She pleaded with the respondent not to give beatings to her husband, but the respondent continued to slap him. He took him on the edge of the stairs and pushed him down. It was the fourth floor of the building from which the deceased was pushed down. He landed on the ground floor with a serious head injury and died at 0.10 a.m., the same night. 3. Report was lodged by PW-1 Radha with the police by making statement, under Section 154 Cr. P.C., record of which is Ext. PA. Case was formally registered on the basis of the aforesaid statement, vide FIR Ext. PF. It may be stated that in the statement Ext. PA PW-1 Radha did not name the assailant. She got recorded that one man had slapped her husband (the deceased), when he urinated in the verandah, outside the toilet and later on pushed him down and that she could identify the man, in case he was shown to her. No other description of the killer was given. PW-9 ASI Dalip Singh conducted inquest and prepared report Ext. PG. Postmortem examination of the dead body was conducted by Dr. Pradeep Kumar, who later on died. Postmortem report is Ext. PD. Cause of death was opined to be head injury. …3… 4. On 18.7.1991, PW-1 Radha went to the Police Station and made a statement that she had come to know that the man, who had pushed her husband down the fourth floor of the hospital building, was Surinder Joshi. Thereafter respondent was arrested and challaned. 5. Trial Court charged the respondent with offence, under Section 302 IPC. He pleaded not guilty and was, therefore, put on trial. 6. Prosecution mainly relied upon the testimony of PW-1 Radha to prove the charge. Learned Sessions Judge did not believe her testimony and acquitted the respondent. 7. We have heard the learned Additional Advocate General and gone through the record. 8. PW-1 Radha in her testimony as PW-1 stated that the man, who had pushed her husband down was not known to her by name, but she knew him by appearance, because he had been in the hospital for the last five days and attending upon his mother, who too was admitted in the same hospital and on the same floor, in a room just opposite the room in which she had her bed. She was confronted with Ext.PA, her statement, under Section 154 Cr. P.C, in which she did not give the aforesaid description of the man, who pushed her husband down. 9. Again, in the Court she stated that there were two persons, who had held her husband by his arms and pushed him down. She stated that respondent was one of those …4… persons, whom she had identified at the police station. In her statement, under Section 154 Cr. P.C, she, however, stated that only one man had pushed her husband. 10. PW-10 Ram Lok Sood, Dy. S.P., stated that respondent was shown to PW-1 Radha, but she could not identify him. Thus, PW-10 Ram Lok Sood, Dy. S.P., contradicts PW-1 Radha. 11. PW-3 Dr. V.K. Pathak stated that the deceased was heavily drunk and had been making noise on the top floor of the hospital building and he went downstairs to call the gatekeeper so that the deceased was removed from the hospital. He also stated that the deceased had fallen from the stairs of the hospital building and that this information had been given by him to the police. 12. Chemical Examiner’s report Ext. DA also shows that the deceased was heavily drunk, because alcohol was found in his blood and viscera. 13. In view of the above stated position, we see no reason to interfere with the judgment of acquittal. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed. ( Surjit Singh ), J. December 15, 2009(ss) (Surinder Singh), J.