* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI + CRL. APPEAL NO. 205 OF 2003 % Date of Decision: 24th February,2009 # RANJEET SINGH GILL ..... Appellant ! Through Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Mrinmayee Sahu, Advocate Versus $ STATE ......Respondent ^ Through Ms. Mukta Gupta, Standing Counsel with Mr. Rajat Katyal, Advocate CORAM: * HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MUKUL MUDGAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P.K.BHASIN 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?(Yes) 2. To be referred to the Reporter or not?(Yes) 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest? (Yes) Crl.A.205/2003 2 JUDGMENT P.K.BHASIN, J: The appellant stands convicted under Sections 302/307 IPC by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi vide judgment dated 22-02-2003 in Sessions Case No. 50/2000 for having shot to death a Member of Parliament Shri Lalit Maken, his wife Geetanjali and one Bal Kishan who had come to see Mr. Lalit Maken, and under Section 307 IPC for causing fire-arm injuries to one Suresh Malik in an incident of indiscriminate firing took place at the residence of Makens in Kirti Nagar. For the triple murders the appellant was mercifully awarded sentence of life imprisonment and fine of Rs.5,000/- and rigorous imprisonment for ten years and a fine of Rs. 5,000/- for his conviction under Section 307 IPC vide order dated 24/02/03. In this appeal the appellant has assailed the correctness of the said decision of the trial Court. 2. The relevant facts leading to the trial and conviction of the appellant have been noticed by the learned Additional Sessions Crl.A.205/2003 3 Judge in the impugned judgment and the relevant paras are re- produced hereunder:- “1. 1984, the eventful year in the history of India laid foundation of this case when some misguided Sikhs vowed to take revenge of alleged genocide of their brethren following assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. 2. The story put-forward by prosecution is that on 31.7.85 Sh. Lalit Makan, M.P., had come to H.No.L- 106, Kirti Nagar to meet pubic as he used to do on every Wednesday and 31.7.85 was a Wednesday. After meeting all the visitors, Sh. Lalit Makan moved towards his vehicle which was parked across the road as he had to go to Parliament. At that moment one person of shallow complexion having small moustache and beard, wearing pant, shirt and light green jacket, hair combed upwards, age about 20- 25 years, height about 5'9” and another of wheatish complexion, height about 5'7/8” age about 22-23 years having pistol like fire arms in their hand fired at Sh. Lalit Makan indiscriminately. Sh. Makan ran towards inside of his house and was chased by two assailants, who kept on firing. Smt. Geetanjali, wife of Sh. Lalit Makan came out and tried to save her husband, but she was also fired at by both the assailants. Both Mr. and Mrs. Makan fell down on the ground. One Suresh Malik who was friend of Sh. Lalit Makan since school days had come on the fateful day to meet Sh. Makan and in the shoot out he also received bullet injury on his right shoulder. Then both the assailants came out of the house continuing firing and rode on a two wheeler scooter No.DEH-8546. One more person wearing half sleeves white shirt and cream colour pant, height about 5'-2/3” aged about 20-21 years also joined the two assailants on the same scooter and all the three escaped on the said scooter. In the shoot out one Bal Kishan who was standing near stair case also was hit by bullets. Sh.Lalit Makan, his wife Geetanjali and Bal Kishan died in the incident. Apart from Suresh Malik, Mohd. Salam had also Crl.A.205/2003 4 witnessed the occurrence who was working as domestic servant of Sh.Lalit Makan. Suresh Singh, Naresh Chand Gupta, Sh.Roshan Lal and Sh.Sarwan Singh were also present at the time of occurrence. 3. In the same chain of events on 4.9.85 Sh.Arjun Dass, Metropolitan Councillor and his body guard Vijender Singh and four others were also shot at by the terrorists at Laxmi Bai Nagar Market in which Sh.Arjun Dass and his body guard died. The empty cartridges were lifted from the scene of crime and they confirmed that the offence of 4.9.85 was also committed by the same gang of terrorists with the object of assassinating VIPs and to create terror in the minds of general public. 4. Both the cases remained unsolved till Sukhdev Singh @ Sukna was arrested by Pune Police in case FIR No. 411/86 u/s 307/34 IPC read with 25/27/54/59 Arms Act…………… Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha was later on arrested in Gen. A.S.Vaidya murder case which was registered at Police Station Bund Garden, Pune vide FIR No. 360/86. On 3.12.86 and 4.12.86 Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha made a confessional statement before Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Kirki, Pune…………………………………………….. 5. On 21.2.87 accused Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha was interrogated in this case by Sh. J.C. Sharma, Insp. Crime Branch in Yarwada, Central Prison Jai, Pune and Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha made a disclosure statement…………………… 10. Following the arrest of accused Sukhdev Singh and his interrogation N.B.Ws. were obtained against Harjinder Singh @ Jinda, Daljeet Singh @ Bittu, Sukhvinder Singh @ K.C. Sharma and Ranjeet Singh Gill, but all avoided their arrest. Later on Harjinder @ Jinda, Daljeet Singh @ Bittoo, Sukhvinder Singh @ K.C. Sharma were declared P.Os. 11. During investigation it was found that accused Ranjeet Singh Gill, the present accused had left India for U.S.A. on 28.2.86 vide Embarkation Card No. 0313564 under the assumed name of Crl.A.205/2003 5 Yashpal Kashyap on a bogus passport. Accused Ranjeet Singh was arrested by INTERPOL in New Jersy, U.S.A. and the proceedings for his extradition to India were initiated. 12. …………………………Accused Ranjeet Singh Gill was finally extradited to India on 7.5.2000 and after completion of investigation challan against him was filed………………………………..” 3. Before proceeding further we also deem it appropriate to notice certain facts which the investigating agency claimed to have found during the investigation in respect of the large scale conspiracies hatched by different persons, including the present appellant Ranjeet Singh Gill, for killing very important personalities who were considered by them to be responsible for the killings of many Sikhs after the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India on 31/10/84. The relevant paras of the charge-sheet containing those facts are re- produced below: “ Investigation conducted revealed that in June, 1984 accused Harjinder Singh @ Jinda and Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha went to Pakistan to procure arms and ammunitions and to get other aids for propagating terrorism in India. They returned to India in last of February, 1985 after getting training. Accused Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha, Harjinder Singh @ Jinda, Daljit Singh @ Bittoo (since absconding), Ranjit Singh Gill @ Doctor(arrested in New Jersey, Crl.A.205/2003 6 USA) Sukhvinder SIgnh @ K.C. Sharma (since dead), Harvinder Singh @ Mathura Singh (since dead), Baljinder Singh @ Raju, Sukhvinder Singh @ Sukhi and other unknown persons were parties to criminal conspiracy to commit illegal acts like dacoity, robbery to indulge in terrorists acts and also to commit murder of Sh. Lalit Maken and others and murder of Sh. Arjun Dass and others, murder of Gen. A.S. Vaidya and to indulge in acts of terrorism with a view to create terrorism in the mind of people…… and pursuant with the said criminal conspiracy murder of Sh. Lalit Maken, his wife Smt. Geetanjali and Sh. Bal Kishan Khanna and attempt on life of Sh. Suresh Malik were committed and thereby committed offences punishable under section 120- B IPC r/w 302/302 IPC, 27/54/59 Arms Act & 3/4 TADA(P) Act,1985. ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Pursuant to the said criminal conspiracy and in order to achieve the object of the said criminal conspiracy and in the course of the said transaction and in order to facilitate the commission of the said offences this gang surveyed the office of Late Sh. Lalit Maken which was found to be most vulnerable for their action and decided to assassinate Sh. Lalit Maken. Accused Sukhvinder Singh @ K.C. Sharma armed with sten-gun and Ranjit Singh Gill @ Kukki armed with .30 pistol reached at Kirti Nagar residence of Sh. Lalit Maken robbed two wheeler scooter no. DEH-8546 whereas Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha armed with .38 revolver reached there in an auto rickshaw at about 9.15 A.M. K.C. Sharma parked his scooter in front of Lalit Maken‟s house. Harijinder Singh @ Jinda also reached Kirti Nagar after getting information about Lalit Maken‟s assassination plan from Daljit Singh @ Bittoo present in Tagore Garden flat. After finishing the meeting with the public , Lalit Maken went upstairs and after a few minutes at about 10.15 AM alongwith his wife and 2 other persons. At this moment Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha and Ranjit Singh Gill opened fire at Lalit Maken. When Lalit Maken Crl.A.205/2003 7 tried to run away inside the house K.C. Sharma followed him with loaded sten gun. Smt. Geeanjali w/o Sh. Lalit Maken tried to save Sh. Lalit Maken, Sukhvinder Singh @ K.C.Sharma fired indiscriminately with his sten gun. In this incident Sh. Bal Kishan and Sh. Suresh Malik sustained bullet injuries.……. During the period of conspiracy all the accused have been parties to criminal conspiracy to commit murder of not less a person than Sh. Lalit Maken, Cong. (I) Leader and a member of Parliament, his wife and Sh. Bal Kishan Khanna and in fact pursuant to the said criminal conspiracy murder of Sh. Lalit Maken his wife and Sh. Bal Kishan was committed in broad day light in his residence cum office in Kirti Nagar, New Delhi……....” 4. During investigation of this case a test identification parade was got arranged by the Delhi police in respect of accused Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha on 25/09/86 at Pune jail where he was lodged in connection with the murder of General A.S. Vaidya(Retd.) and during that test identification parade he was identified by PW-2 Naresh Chand Gupta and PW-6 Mohd. Salam, eye witnesses of the incident of shooting, as one of the shooters who had participated in the shooting incident on 31/7/85 at the residence of Sh. Lalit Maken. On 25/09/86 the house of Ranjit Singh Gill in Ludhiana was searched and certain documents were seized during that search. Ranjit Singh was, Crl.A.205/2003 8 however, not found at his house at that time. Arrest warrants were then obtained from Court for the arrest of accused Ranjit Singh Gill but the same could not be executed. Then process was got initiated against him for declaring him a proclaimed offender but before he could be got declared a proclaimed offender the investigating agency came to know that Ranjit Singh Gill had fled away to U.S.A. on fake documents under the assumed name of Yashpal Kashyap and had been arrested there on 14/05/87 and then the Government initiated extradition proceedings for bringing him back to India. In the meantime, accused Harjinder Singh @ Jinda, who had also been named as a co-conspirator by accused Sukhvinder Singh @ Sukha in the present case of murder of Makens as also in the murder of Gneral Vaidya and was absconding, was arrested sometime in 1987 in Delhi in some other case and pursuant to his confession made in that case during interrogation he was formally arrested in the present case also. It also appears that he had made a confession about his involvement in the murder of General Vaidya also and in connection with that case he Crl.A.205/2003 9 appears to have been sent to Pune Jail. It is also the prosecution case that for the identification of accused Ranjit Singh Gill, who had been named by Sukhvinder Singh @ Sukha in his confessional statement as his co-conspirator, PW-1 Suresh Singh Malik, PW-2 Naresh Chand Gupta and PW-6 Mohd. Salam were shown certain photographs during investigation by the police on 04/08/87 and photo of Ranjit Singh Gill also was one of those photographs and all these three eye-witnesses had identified Ranjit Singh Gill from his photo as one of the culprits involved in the shooting incident on 31/07/85. With that photo identification of Ranjit Singh Gill investigation in respect of Sukhvinder Singh @ Sukha, Harjinder Singh @ Jinda and Ranjit Singh Gill stood completed and since the investigating agency considered that there was sufficient evidence against these three accused in the form of evidence of eye witnesses who had identified Sukhvinder Singh @ Sukha in test identification parade at Pune, confessional statements of Sukha and Jinda, photo identification of accused Ranjit Singh, a charge-sheet was filed in the Designated Court under TADA Act Crl.A.205/2003 10 against them but since accused Ranjit Singh Gill was detained in U.S.A. and extradition proceedings had been initiated his name was shown in column no.2 of the charge-sheet. The Designated Judge after noticing that extradition proceedings were going on in respect of accused Ranjit Singh Gill issued production warrants for the production of accused Harjinder Singh @ Jinda, and Sukhdev Singh @ Sukha in connection with the present case but the Designated Court at Pune trying them for the murder of General A.S. Vaidya(Retd.) did not accept the request of the Delhi Court for sending them to Delhi so that they could face trial in the present case also. Those two accused were finally convicted by the Pune Court under TADA Act as well as under Section 302 IPC and they were awarded death sentence which was confirmed by the Supreme Court also and thereafter both of them were hanged. Consequently the present case against them in Delhi had to be closed by the Designated Court vide order dated 28.9.1993. Thereafter some evidence was recorded under Section 299 Cr.P.C. It further appears that one of the accused who had been declared a proclaimed offender, namely, Daljeet Crl.A.205/2003 11 Singh was arrested by the police in some other case and was lodged in Nabha jail and pursuant to his confession made during his interrogation of that case regarding his involvement in the present case also he was charge-sheeted and tried by the Designated Court under Section 3(3) of TADA Act only but was acquitted vide judgment dated 7/12/99. 5. Accused Ranjit Singh Gill was finally allowed to be extradited by the USA Court to be tried in India on the charge of „murder‟ only. Gill was brought to India on 2nd May, 2000 and thereafter a supplementary charge-sheet was filed against him in Court in July,2000. After supply of the documents to the accused, as per Section 207 Cr.P.C., and after the counsel for the accused had confirmed that all complete set of the documents had been supplied to the accused the case was committed to the Sessions Court. The Additional Sessions Judge framed the following charges against accused Ranjit Singh Gill:- Crl.A.205/2003 12 “ I M.L. Mehta, ASJ, Delhi do hereby charge you Ranjit Gill @ Kooky @ Doctor Harish Aggarwal @ Hare, @ Manjeet Singh @ Suley Bahadur Thapa @ R.P. Thapa as under:- That you Ranjit Gill @ Kooky @ Doctor Harish Aggarwal @ Hare, @ Manjeet Singh @ Suley Bahadur Thapa @ R.P. Thapa had on or about May to July, 1985 conspired with your co-accused Sukhdev Singh, Harjinder Singh, Sukhminder Singh (all since deceased) and Daljeet Singh others to commit murder of Hindu VIP‟s including that of Lalit Makken and others and in pursuance of the said conspiracy you all with your common intention committed murder of Lalit Makken, his wife Gitanjali Makken and one Bal Kishan at/near the residence of Lalit Makken at L/106, Kirti Nagar on 31.7.1985 at about 10.30 a.m. by firing arms and you thereby committed offences u/s 120-B and 302/34 IPC. It is further against you that on the abovesaid date, time and place in furtherance of their common intention you caused injury on the person of Suresh Malik with intention or said knowledge and under such circumstances that if by that act you had caused the death of Suresh Malik you would have been guilty of offence of murder and thereby committed an offence u/s 307/34 IPC and within the cognizance of this court.” 6. To prove its case, the prosecution examined as many as 55 witnesses. After the completion of prosecution evidence the appellant-accused in his statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure denied the prosecution allegations and pleaded false implication. He also claimed that Crl.A.205/2003 13 he was arrested in USA in connection with the instant case on 14-5-87 and that he himself had conceded the extradition request of the Indian Government. 7. The learned Additional Sessions Judge after analyzing the prosecution evidence came to the conclusion that accused Ranjit Singh Gill was guilty of the commission of offences punishable under Sections 302/307 IPC but acquitted him of the charge under Section 120-B IPC in respect of which the investigating agency had claimed in the charge-sheet that it had been able to unearth a large-scale conspiracy hatched by different terrorists to kill many Hindu VIPs including the deceased Lalit Maken. In respect of the charge of conspiracy the findings of the learned trial Court are to be found in para nos. 109 and 127 and the same are reproduced below: “109. As mentioned in para 19 above 10 witnesses were examined by prosecution to prove that the present accused was a close associate of Sukhdev Singh. None of those witnesses deposed that in any of the case registered or investigated by them the present accused was also an accused. P.W. 47 Inspector Mohinder Singh admitted that he had arrested one Ranjeet Singh in case FIR 349/86 of Police Station Kalkaji, but he was some other Crl.A.205/2003 14 person and not the present accused. None of the witnesses produced by prosecution was able to prove that the present accused had any connection with other accused persons. So it has become highly doubtful that the present accused had entered into a conspiracy to eliminate some people. At several points above it has been observed that the confessional statement of Sukha which was the only piece of evidence to prove that the present accused had conspired with others, is not admissible against him in the present trial. 127. The accused has been charged with offence punishable u/s 120-B IPC also. But in my opinion as discussed above no legally tenable evidence has come on record to conclude that accused had conspired with other accused persons to commit the offences. There may be a conspiracy hatched, but that cannot be held to be proved because confession made by co-accused is not admissible and the other cases registered against other accused persons could not be connected with the present accused.” 8. Learned trial Judge, however, held accused Ranjit Singh Gill guilty for the commission of offences punishable under Section 302 IPC for the murders of Makens and Bal Kishan and under Section 307 IPC for the attempted murder of PW-1 Suresh Singh Malik. In order to establish the involvement of accused Ranjit Singh Gill in the shooting incident the prosecution had examined five eye-witnesses including the injured witness Suresh Singh Malik(PW-1). However, except for the domestic Crl.A.205/2003 15 servant of the Makens, PW-6 Mohd. Salam, no other eye-witness claimed that accused Ranjit Singh Gill was one of the shooters although all of them, except PW-2 Roshan Lal who totally turned hostile, did depose that shooting incident had taken place on 31/07/85 at the residence of Shri Lalit Maken. After referring to the evidence of the eye witnesses the learned trial Judge observed as under in para no.104 of the impugned judgment: “104. From the evidence reproduced above it becomes clear that the prosecution case rests solely on the testimony of PW-6 who has identified the accused in Court. PW-1, PW-2, PW-3 and PW-5, according to prosecution version were eye witnesses, but none of them identified the present accused as one of the assailants.” 9. The learned trial Judge then analysed the evidence of PW- 6 Mohd. Salam and also considered the criticism made on behalf the accused regarding the veracity of his testimony and after rejecting all the grounds of attack the trial Court convicted and sentenced the accused, as has been noticed already. 10. Accused Ranjit Singh Gill has now questioned the decision of the learned trial Judge holding him guilty by filing this appeal. Crl.A.205/2003 16 His appeal was argued by senior advocate Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi. Learned senior counsel for the appellant did not dispute before us that the incident of firing had taken place, as is the prosecution case, at the residence of the deceased Lalit Maken as also the fact that Lalit Maken, his wife Geetanjali Maken and one Bal Kishan had lost their lives in that incident Suresh Malik(PW-1) had also been shot at by the shooters. Mr. Tulsi also did not dispute that all the three deceased persons had died because of multiple fire-arm injuries sustained by them. All these facts even otherwise stand duly established from the evidence of four of eye-witnesses examined by the prosecution and the medical evidence. 11. PW-1 Suresh Singh Malik is the injured witness as well as the first informant of the incident. It was on his statement that the FIR in respect of the present incident was registered on 31.7.85. This is what he has deposed in respect of the incident : “I know Lalit Makin from his college time as he was my class fellow during college days. I had friendly relati0ons with him and I used to meet him. Lalit Makin was residing in L block, Kirti Nagar. Lalit Maken was elected as member of Parliament. Lalit Crl.A.205/2003 17 Makan was allotted a official accommodation at Tilak Nagar and he had shifted there few days ago from the date of occurrence. Lalit Makan used to come at his old resident L Block, Kirti Nagar to meet the people from 8am to 10am. On Wednesday Sh. Lalit Makin used to meet people from 8 am to 10am. On 31/7/85 I reached L Block, Kirti Nagar at about 8.05 am. He met the people that day upto 10 or 10.15 am. He had to go parliament to attend the parliament. At about 10 or 10.05 am he left his office and came out for going to parliament house. He proceeded to his vehicle which was parked on the other side of his house. When he was about to move his vehicle some person started firing. I saw him and went towards him. I saw two person were firing on him. One of the person was having a height of 5‟9 or 5‟10 and of Sanwla complexion and was having small moustaches. He was wearing pent and shirt. He was of about 20-25 years. He was having a weapon with a thin long nozzle. The other person was having a pistol like weapon. He was about of 5‟7 and he was of wheatish colour. He was of about 22-23 years. They were both firing on Lalit Makin. When I reached near those persons and they also fired upon me. I received two bullet on my right shoulder. When those two persons fired upon me Lalit Makan got a time and he started running towards his house. Those 2 persons left me and chased Lalit when he was running towards his house. Those 2 persons were firing upon Lalit with a weapon in their hands. On hearing the sound of firing w/o of Lalit Makan. Geetanjali Makan reached there from the left side of her house came in the firing range. And she also sustained bullet injuries. The accused persons also fired upon the w/o Lalit Makan amely Geetanjali Makan. Lalit Makan took protection and concealed himself near the stair and those 2 persons also fired upon him near the stairs. After firing upon Lalit Makan and Geetanjali Makan those two persons came running from the house of Lalit Makan. There