Criminal Appeal No. 881-SB of 1997 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH Criminal Appeal No.881-SB of 1997 Date of Decision: January 07,2010 Premi ...........Appellant Versus State of Haryana ..........Respondent Coram: Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Sabina Present: Mr.Ashok Aggarwal, Advocate for the appellant Mr.Gaurav Dhir, Deputy Advocate General, Haryana ** Sabina, J. Appellant was tried for an offence under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (`IPC' for short) vide judgment dated 23.10.1997 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Hisar. The Additional Sessions Judge Hisar convicted the appellant under Section 323 IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.500/-. In default of payment of fine, the appellant was further ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months. Hence, the present appeal. The brief facts of the case, as noticed by the Appellate Court in para 2 of its judgment, are as under:- “2. Prosecution case in brief runs like this that on receipt of ruqa Criminal Appeal No. 881-SB of 1997 2 police reached the hospital and after obtaining the opinion of doctor regarding condition of Yogesh Sharma, his statement was recorded and it was stated by Yogesh that on 23.10.95 at about 9.30 PM, his son Ved Parkash was playing with fire crackers. The complainant his wife and Amar Chand neighbourer were standing at some distance and three daughters of the complainant were sleeping inside the house. In the meantime, Premi, Bhajji sons, Amro wife and Satnami daughter of Bud Singh, who reside in front of the house of complainant in Matu Ram Colony, Fatehabad came armed with lathis, pipes etc. Premi accused caught hold of Ved Parkash son of complainant by neck and expressed resentment regarding falling of fire crackers in their house and also stated to him as to why he was making so much noise. Then complainant, his wife Pushpa and neighbourer Amar Chand tried to bring him round but in the meantime, Bhajji alias Harbhajan accused took out knife from his pocket and inflicted knife blow on the left side of chest of Ved Parkash, who fell down on the spot. Premi accused gave lathi blow on the head of the complainant. Amro gave pipe blow on the right hand and back of the complainant, while Satnami gave lathi blow on the legs. Bhajji accused inflicted knife blows on the right thigh, left arm, back and left hand of the complainant. On hearing the alarm raised by Pushpa and Amar Chand, Satpal and Matu Ram etc. reached the spot and accused absconded from the spot with their respective weapons. Sh.Bharat Singh, adv. removed the complainant and his son in injured condition to the hospital but Criminal Appeal No. 881-SB of 1997 3 Ved Parkash was declared dead in the hospital by the doctors. On this report, present case was registered and investigated. The dead body of Ved Parkash was subject to post-mortem examination after preparing inquest report Medical reports regarding injuries caused to Yogesh were also collected. The accused were arrested. The accused got recovered weapons of offence in persuance of the disclosure statement made by them which were taken into possession. On completion of the investigation challan was put up.” Learned counsel for the appellant, during the course of arguments, has not challenged the conviction of the appellant under Section 323 IPC as ordered by the trial Court but has submitted that the sentence qua imprisonment be reduced to already undergone by the appellant. Learned counsel has further submitted that the incident relates to the year 1995. The appellant was not a previous convict and had a family to support. Accordingly, keeping in view the submissions made by the learned counsel for the appellant, it is a fit case where the sentence qua imprisonment is liable to be reduced to already undergone by the appellant. Hence, the conviction of the appellant under Section 323 IPC is maintained. However, the sentence qua the imprisonment of the appellant is reduced to already undergone by him.Fine has already been deposited by the applicant. Petition stands disposed of accordingly. (Sabina) Judge January 07, 2010 arya Criminal Appeal No. 881-SB of 1997 4