Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 1 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. Date of Decision : 30.7.2009. State of Punjab ...... Appellant (1) Versus 1. Gurmukh Singh son of Jagat Singh r/o Vill. Pipal Majra, P.S. Chamkaur Sahib, District Ropar. 2. Sucha Singh son of Hardeet Singh r/o Vill. Majri, P.S. Morinda, District Ropar. ......Respondents Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. Date of Decision : 30.7.2009. Major Singh r/o Vill. Majri, District Ropar. ...... Petitioner (2) Versus 1. State of Punjab. 2. Gurmukh Singh son of Jagat Singh r/o Vill. Pipal Majra, P.S. Chamkaur Sahib, District Ropar. 3. Sucha Singh son of Hardeet Singh r/o Vill. Majri, P.S. Morinda, District Ropar. ......Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.S. GAREWAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE NAWAB SINGH Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 2 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. Present: Ms. Gurveen Singh, Addl. AG Punjab, for the appellant-State. Mr. Ranjan Lakhanpal, Advocate, for Gurmukh Singh-respondent No.1. Mr. S.S. Siao, Advocate, for Sucha Singh-respondent No.2. Mr. Kamaljit Singh, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Prachi Sharma, Advocate, for the revision-petitioner. NAWAB SINGH J. This judgment would dispose of Criminal Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001 and Criminal Revision No. 899 of 2001 as they have been filed against the common judgment dated December 13th, 2000 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ropar, whereby, above named respondents were acquitted. 2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on May 5th, 1991 at about 11.30 PM Sucha Singh-respondent No.2 along with three persons in their thirties came to the house of Major Singh-complainant and his brother Dharam Singh situated in village Majri, Police Station Morinda, District Ropar. They knocked on the door. Major Singh and Dharam Singh woke up. Sucha Singh and his accomplices were armed with rifles. Except Sucha Singh, others were in muffled faces. The accomplices of Sucha Singh asked Major Singh as to what was the dispute between him and Sucha Singh. Major Singh told them that the dispute was not with him but was with his brother Karam Singh (deceased). Sucha Singh and his accomplices asked Major Singh and Dharam Singh to accompany them to the house of Karam Singh as they wanted to have a talk with him. All of them reached Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 3 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. the house of Karam Singh and awoke him. They asked Karam Singh as to why he was not vacating the land of Sucha Singh. They threatened Karam Singh with dire consequences. Karam Singh told them that since the matter is pending in the Civil Court, he would not vacate the land. Meanwhile, one of the assailants fired shot on the head of Karam Singh with his rifle. Karam Singh died instantaneously. An alarm was raised. The accused fled away from the scene of occurrence. 3. Next morning, that is, May 6th, 1991, Major Singh proceeded to lodge the report to the Police. Kartar Singh Assistant Sub- Inspector, Police Station Morinda met him near Bus-stand and recorded his statement (Exhibit PA). He appended his endorsement (Exhibit PA/1) and sent the same to the Police Station. On the basis of which, formal First Information Report (for short 'the FIR') (Exhibit PA/2) was recorded. Police reached the spot. Inquest proceedings (Exhibit PC) were conducted. Blood stained earth and one fired shot were taken into possession vide recovery memorandum (Exhibit PD). Rough site plan of the place of occurrence (Exhibit PG) was drawn. 4. On June 20th, 1991, Surjit Singh Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat of village Majri informed the Police that he noticed four persons viz. Jhirmal Singh, Manjit Singh, Gurmukh Singh and Avtar Singh armed with rifles in the village on the day when Karam Singh was murdered. His statement (Exhibit PB) was recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. Out of these four accused, Jhirmal Singh got killed in Police encounter in the area of village Bhago Majra on November 17th, 1991. Qua that, FIR No.134 dated November 17th, 1991 was registered in Police Station Kharar. Manjit Singh Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 4 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. committed suicide while he was in Police custody. Avtar Singh was arrested but during his Test Identification Parade, the witnesses did not identify him so, he was discharged. Gurmukh Singh accused was arrested on January 28th, 1998, that is, after about six and a half years of the occurrence. Sucha Singh who was named in the FIR was found innocent so, charge- sheet/challan was not filed against him. However, during trial, application under Section 319 Cr.P.C was filed by the prosecution praying that Sucha Singh be summoned for being tried along with another accused. The said application was accepted by the trial Court by order dated March 17th, 1999 and Sucha Singh was summoned to face trial. 5. The accused-respondents were charged under Sections 302 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code on the accusation that on May 5th, 1991 in the area of village Majri they committed murder of Karam Singh. They pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. 6. In support of its case, prosecution examined seven witnesses viz Major Singh (PW-1), Jagir Singh Assistant Sub-Inspector (PW-2), Kartar Singh-Investigator (PW-3), Dharam Singh (PW-4), Dr. Rajiv Sarwal (PW-5), Jasmeet Singh (PW-6) and Gurcharan Singh (PW-7). 7. When examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C, accused- respondents denied the allegations and pleaded that they have been implicated falsely. 8. In defence, the accused-respondents tendered copies of judgments (Exhibit DA and DB). 9. Learned counsel on either side have been heard. Record over the file has been perused. Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 5 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. 10. After going through the evidence on record, question arises as to whether Sucha Singh accompanied the assailants and Gurmukh Singh fired shot upon Karam Singh or not ? 11. Sucha Singh and the complainant are natives of the same village. On the statement of Sucha Singh case bearing FIR No.21 dated March 11st, 1990 under Sections 324 and 326 read with Section 34 IPC was registered in Police Station Morinda against Major Singh (PW-1), his brothers Dharam Singh (PW-4) and Amar Singh. On the day of alleged occurrence, they were facing trial. From it, it appears that there was enmity between the parties. No documentary evidence has been led by the prosecution to prove that there was any civil litigation pending between Sucha Singh and the deceased or there was any dispute over a piece of land between them. For the sake of argument, if Sucha Singh had to settle the score with Karam Singh (deceased), he would not have gone firstly to the house of his brother Major Singh and Dharam Singh and that too, with three persons in muffled faces armed with rifles. Not only that, Sucha Singh asked them to accompany him to the house of Karam Singh as he had to settle the land dispute with him. Since Sucha Singh was resident of the same village, It was obvious that he was aware about the location of the house of Karam Singh. He could go straight to the house of Karam Singh and kill him instead of firstly, going to the house of Major Singh and Dharam Singh asking them to accompany him to the house of Karam Singh. No prudent man would act in such a manner to create evidence against him. The story does not rest here. Per Major Singh and Dharam Singh, Sucha Singh did not participate in the occurrence nor he exhorted his co-accused to fire shot Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 6 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. upon Karam Singh. Since Sucha Singh did not participate in the actual murder of Karam Singh and the occurrence took place at his instance then there was no point for him to accompany the assailants. He could show the house of Karam Singh to the assailants instead of accompanying them and that too, with the brothers of the deceased. One cannot loose sight of the fact that the matter was investigated by the Police and it was found that Sucha Singh was not involved in the murder. He was not even challaned by the Police. The conclusion reached after due investigation regarding innocence of Sucha Singh is a strong circumstance not to be brushed aside. 12. In so far as accused Gurmukh Singh is concerned, his name figured for the first time on June 20th, 1998, that is, after one and a half months of the occurrence when Surjit Singh Sarpanch Gram Panchayat, Majri made his statement (Exhibit PB) to the Police. Surjit Singh has not been examined by the prosecution so, no weighage can be given to his statement recorded by the Police under Section 161 Cr.P.C. Gurmukh Singh was not named by Major Singh in the FIR, meaning thereby, Gurmukh Singh was not known to Major Singh nor it is the case of prosecution. On March 17th, 1999, that is, after about 8 years of the occurrence, when he (Major Singh) appeared as PW-1, deposed that Gurmukh Singh fired shot upon his brother. On what basis, he named Gurmukh Singh that he fired the fatal shot on his brother ? No answer to this pertinent question, much less a satisfactory one, is coming forth from the prosecution. In the absence of concrete evidence, the belated statements of Major Singh and Dharam Singh recorded after 8 years of the occurrence, cannot be believed at all. Even two views are possible, the view taken by the trial Court while acquitting the Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 7 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001. accused is required to be upheld. In this case, there was hardly any evidence worth the name to warrant conviction of the respondents. 13. In view of what has been stated above, the impugned judgment does not suffer from any infirmity and is, therefore, upheld. Resultantly, the appeal and the revision being devoid of merit are dismissed. (NAWAB SINGH) (K.S. GAREWAL) JUDGE JUDGE 30.7.2009. SN Crl. Appeal No. 484-DBA of 2001. 8 Crl. Revision No. 899 of 2001.