Hazara Singh vs Raj Kumar & Ors

3) Brief facts:

After receipt of the said ruqa, on 26.04.1994, Raj Pal Singh, S.I., In- charge Police Station, Babain, went to the hospital and recorded the statements of the injured.

(b) Hazara Singh, in his statement, alleged that he was a resident of village Kassithal and was an agriculturist. That about 6/7 years back, he had purchased 6 kanals of disputed agricultural land in village Rampura from one Sat Pal, possession of which was delivered to him. He along with his family members harvested wheat crop from that land and had kept it in their adjoining field.

(c) On 25.04.1994, at about 6.30 p.m., his brother Piara Singh was ploughing the above said land, with the help of a tractor, while he along with his father was collecting the harvested wheat crop in the adjoining field. At that time, they suddenly, heard the noise of “bachao bachao” from his brother Piara Singh. Thereafter, he noticed Piara Singh jumping from the tractor and raising alarm coming towards them and Kesho Ram and his brother, along with 5/6 persons, were lifting the harvested wheat crop and placing it on the tractor. Raj Kumar was pouring diesel on the tractor out of the can held by him. Then Kesho Ram lit the fire on the tractor and Lal Chand and Bhag Singh ran after his brother Piara Singh and encircled him. They started inflicting lathi blows to his brother. He along with his father went near their brother by raising alarm. When they reached near their brother, Kesho Ram inflicted gandasi blow over his head but he rescued it by lifting his right hand which resulted in an injury in the middle of the right thumb and fingers. Simultaneously, Annu and Tinna started inflicting lathi blows upon him. In the meanwhile, Lal Chand, Raj Kumar and Bhag Singh started inflicting injuries on his father and caused grievous injuries. On hearing their alarm, Lachman Singh and Bhagat Singh were attracted from the nearby fields. On seeing them, all the accused with their respective weapons, i.e., lathis and gandasis ran away. All three of them became unconscious due to the said injuries. When he regained consciousness, he found himself in the hospital, Ladwa.

(d) Upon this information, an FIR under Sections 148, 149, 323, 324, 435 and 447 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short “IPC”) was registered. After receipt of the opinion of the doctor that the injuries sustained were dangerous to life, an offence under Section 307 IPC was also added.

(e) After obtaining medical reports and completion of investigation, all the accused were arrested and on their disclosure statements, weapons of offence were recovered and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. After hearing the parties, all the accused totaling six were charge sheeted for the above-said offences. Out of the six accused, two were held to be minors and were directed to be tried by the Juvenile Court. The remaining four accused (respondent Nos. 1 to 4 herein) pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

(g) Aggrieved by the said order of conviction and sentence, the accused- respondents preferred Criminal Appeal No. 4-SB of 1997 whereas the appellant preferred Criminal Revision No. 416 of 1997 for enhancement of sentence before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh.

(h) The High Court, by impugned order dated 03.11.2008, dismissed the revision filed by the appellant and partly allowed the appeal filed by the accused by reducing the sentence to the period already undergone.

That PW-15, Hazara Singh injured, PW-16 Jaspal Singh, eye-witness, PW- 17 Piara Singh injured and PW-19, Mehma Singh injured, have broadly supported the case of the prosecution.” After analyzing the above injuries with reference to the specific evidence by the doctors concerned and the certificates issued, the trial Court came to the following conclusion:-

Addition to the above all accused respondents were awarded following sentence:-

26) Under these circumstances, we hold that the High Court has wrongly interfered with the order of sentence on wholly untenable and irrelevant grounds, some of them even not borne out on record. To avoid miscarriage of justice, we must interfere and accordingly, we set aside the sentence imposed by the High Court and restore the sentence imposed by the trial Court. All the respondents-accused, namely, Raj Kumar, Keshav Ram, Lal Chand and Bhag Singh shall be taken into custody forthwith to serve the remaining period of sentence as ordered by the trial Court. The appeals are allowed.

APRIL 18, 2013.