Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 Date of Decision:- 23.07.2009 Balwinder Singh ....Petitioner(s) vs. The State of Punjab and others ....Respondent(s) *** CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH *** Present:- Mr.A.K.Walia, Advocate, for the petitioner. *** AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J. The present revision petition has been preferred by the complainant against the judgment dated 31.3.2008 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Sangrur, whereby accused Varinder Singh @ Raju has been acquitted of the charge. Counsel for the petitioner contends that the grounds on which the learned trial Court has acquitted the accused are unsustainable. He contends that what has primarily gone against the prosecution is that there was a delay of 17 hours in lodging the F.I.R. He submits that explanation for the delay in registration of the FIR has been duly given by the prosecution. Further, the delay in dispatch and receipt of the copy of the F.I.R. by the Illaqa Magistrate also does not affect fatally the prosecution case although that has also been taken into consideration by the Court Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -2- below. He further submits that it has come in evidence that Ravdeep Kaur- deceased daughter of Balwinder Singh-petitioner, was last seen with the accused Varinder Singh @ Raju when he had left the deceased at the Ravi Hospital at Bhawanigarh and when the complainant along with his uncle Prem Singh PW-6 reached there, the accused left the place immediately. Counsel further submits that deceased Ravdeep Kaur, daughter of the complainant, was taken to Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh, from where while being taken to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, she had disclosed to her father, i.e. complainant, that Varinder Singh @ Raju had forced her to consume sulphas tablets at the house of the complainant. He, on this basis, submits that the evidence which has come on record clearly establishes that the accused-respondent had committed the crime and therefore, should have been convicted and sentenced accordingly. I have heard counsel for the petitioner and gone through the records of the case. The case of the prosecution which is based on the statement given by Ravdeep Kaur, aged 17 years to her father who is the complainant, was that on 22.8.2005 when she was alone in the house, Varinder Singh @ Raju came there. According to her, Varinder Singh @ Raju, on reaching the house of the complainant, asked her to elope with him as they would marry each other, but she refused to accompany him, upon which Varinder Singh @ Raju asked her to marry him or else let them die together by taking sulphas tablets. Accused Varinder Singh @ Raju gave sulphas tablets to her which she swallowed. Raju instead of consuming the tablets himself, brought Ravdeep Kaur on his motorcycle to Ravi Hospital, Bhawanigarh, and on reaching there, he called up the complainant and informed him on his mobile phone that his daughter had consumed poison Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -3- and was present at Ravi Hospital, Bhawanigarh. The said phone call was received by the complainant at about 1.20 P.M. The complainant reached Khan Hospital at Bhawanigarh on a motorcycle, from where he was accompanied by his uncle Prem Singh and his mother Smt.Harjit Kaur reached outside the Ravi Hospital, Bhawanigarh, where they found Varinder Singh @ Raju present by the side of Ravdeep Kaur. The complainant took his daughter Ravdeep Kaur to Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh, whereafter she was removed to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala for her treatment on reference by the Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh. While on the way from Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, the factum of Ravdeep Kaur having been made to consume the sulphas tablets so given by Raj, was disclosed to the complainant. Ravdeep Kaur died on the way to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. The complainant leaving the body of the deceased daughter Ravdeep Kaur at the Mortuary, returned back to his house in village Roshanwala, Police Station Bhawanigarh. Thereafter, Sub Inspector Kulwant Singh Police Station, Bhawanigarh, on receipt of ruqa from the Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh, on 22.8.2005, reached Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, and moved an application before the Medical Officer to ascertain about the fitness of the patient to make a statement and on the said application, the Doctor reported that the patient had expired on 22.8.2005 at 5.40 P.M. On the next day, the complainant along with his relatives reached Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, at 11.30 A.M. where S.I.Kulwant Singh recorded the statement of Balwinder Singh- complainant on the basis of which an FIR was registered. The said FIR was recorded at 12.30 P.M. and the special report reached the Court of Illaqa Magistrate on 23.8.2005 at 9.15 P.M. On 23.8.2005, the post-mortem of the Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -4- deceased was conducted by Dr.S.S.Oberoi, Assistant Professor, Government Medical College, Patiala. However, the opinion about the cause of death was deferred to await the report of the Chemical Examiner. On receipt of the said report, it was opined that the cause of death was Aluminum Phosphate, a poison which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. A perusal of the above position would show that there are various lacunas in the story of the prosecution as the events unfurl as stated above. No evidence has come on record with regard to any phone call having been made by Varinder Singh @ Raju accused to the complainant on his mobile phone as has been asserted by him. On the other hand, the statement of the accused Varinder Singh @ Raju is that on 22.8.2005, he had gone to Delhi because of the death of Shingara Singh, husband of the sister of his mother. He remained there till 7.9.2005 till the Bhog ceremony and on 8.9.2005, he came back to Bhawanigarh and on coming to know about the case registered against him, he surrendered before the Police on 9.9.2005. As per the assertion of the complainant, his daughter deceased Ravdeep Kaur had disclosed to him while being taken from Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, about the poison having been administered to her by Varinder Singh @ Raju. On the death of his daughter at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, when it was known to the complainant that she had died because of the poison given by Raju as she had narrated the whole incident to him while she was being taken from Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh, to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, he should have at that very instance got registered an FIR. It is an admitted position that Police Station, Bhawanigarh falls on the way while returning Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -5- from Patiala to his home village, Roshanwala. This act of the complainant is totally unnatural being a father who having come to know the reason and the cause and the person responsible for the death of his daughter, would not get a complaint recorded; rather go back to his own village. The things do not end here. On the next day, again he crosses Bhawanigarh to come back to Patiala where the dead body of his daughter is kept in the hospital for post-mortem. He does not get the FIR registered. It has also come on record that ASI Anokh Singh is related to them and he accompanied them from their village to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala whereby the statement of the complainant was recorded at 11.30 A.M. on 23.8.2005. All this goes to suggest that the prosecution story is not the correct version but has been manipulated either with an intention to rope in the accused or with an intention to save the honour of the family. There is a delay of 17 hours in registration of the FIR and no explanation whatsoever has come forth, which would justify the said delay of 17 hours in getting the FIR registered. Furthermore, there is also no explanation forth-coming that after the registration of the FIR at 12.30 P.M., as to why the Special Report reached the Court of the Illaqa Magistrate on 23.8.2005 at 9.15 P.M. As per the assertion of the complainant, Raju had taken Ravneet Kaur to Ravi Hospital, Bhawanigarh on his motorcycle after she had consumed sulphas tablets. As per the statement of PW-3 Dr.Rajeev, Medical Officer, PHC, Bhawanigarh, the patient namely, Ravdeep Kaur, was brought by the complainant. She was almost in semi conscious condition when she was brought in the hospital at 1.40 P.M. and she was referred to the Rajindra Hospital at 1.50 P.M. The condition of the patient was serious. Sometimes, she was responding to the questions and Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -6- sometimes her response was feeble. From her moving from the Civil Hospital, Bhawanigarh at 1.50 P.M. till the Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, where she was declared brought dead, there could not have been any improvement as with the passage of time, poison would further have its effect. This goes to show that the alleged disclosure statement made by the deceased to her father on the way is a manipulation on the part of the complainant. She could not, in any case, after having consumed poison and being in a semi-conscious position, ride the pillion of the motorcycle at the back of the Varinder Singh @ Raju. Above all, if the intention of the accused was to kill Ravdeep Kaur, the daughter of the complainant and he had administered poison to her in her house when she was alone, why would he take her to the hospital on his motorcycle. There is no explanation whatsoever for this act on the part of the accused. Further, it has come on record that in the statement of DW-5 Kuldeep Kumar, the mother of the accused, that the accused who was matric pass, used to work in a workshop and was getting a monthly salary of Rs.1500/-. Balwinder Singh, complainant, was running the school and his wife was a Anganwari Worker and their daughter had passed 10+2 class. For this reason, they did not want their daughter to marry the accused. It has also come on record that the letters had been written by the deceased Ravneet Kaur to the accused which shows her love towards the accused and her intention was, therefore, apparent that she wanted to marry the accused. The letters have been produced on record as Mark C & D. The accused has examined DW-2 Navdeep Gupta, Handwriting and Finger Prints Expert, who made the comparison of the letters with the standard writing which was on form No.206074 of (10+2) (Commerce Group) of Punjab School Crl.Rev.No.1480 of 2008 -7- Education Board bearing Roll No.97903 of Ravdeep Kaur, daughter of Balwinder Singh, which was produced by DW-1 Harjinder Singh, Junior Assistant, Punjab School Education Board, Mohali. As per the report of the Handwriting Expert, the writings on the letters and on the form have been written by the same person, meaning thereby that the letters which were written to the accused-Raju were written by Ravdeep Kaur. No cross- examination has been conducted on DW-2 Navdeep Gupta with regard to the opinion which he had tendered on comparison of the writing on the letters and the form. This apparently shows that the accused has been involved in the case with an intention to save the honour of the family and to shift the burden of explaining the circumstances leading to the death of Ravdeep Kaur, from the family on to the accused. In view of the above, the contentions as raised by the counsel for the revision-petitioner do not carry weight which would call for interference by this Court in the judgment dated 31.3.2008 passed by the Sessions Judge, Sangrur, acquitting accused-Varinder Singh @ Raju of the charges framed against him and accordingly the revision petition is dismissed. July 23, 2009 ( AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH ) poonam JUDGE