Ram Singh vs Sonia & Ors

Sonia [A-1] and Sanjiv [A-2], respondents in Criminal Appeal No. 895 of 2005, were tried and convicted by the trial court under Section 302 read with Section 34 and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code [`IPC' for short] and sentenced to death and to pay a fine of Rs. 2000/- each. A-1 and A-2 were further convicted under Sections 25(1-B)(b) and 25(1-B(a) of the Arms Act respectively and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year. A-2 was further convicted under Section 201 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- in default whereof to further undergo imprisonment for one month. The sentences were, however, ordered to run concurrently. Tried along with A-1 and A-2 were eight other accused persons but they were acquitted by the trial court for want of evidence. The order of convictions and sentences gave rise to a murder reference by the Sessions Judge, Hisar and appeals by both the accused before the Punjab & Haryana High Court. By the impugned judgment, while upholding their convictions under Section 302 read with Section 34 and Section 120-B of the IPC and other provisions, the High Court has commuted the sentence of death into life imprisonment. Hence these appeals by special leave. While Criminal Appeal Nos. 895 of 2005 and 894 of 2005 have been preferred by Ram Singh, brother of deceased Relu Ram, and the State of Haryana respectively for enhancement of sentence from life imprisonment to death, Criminal Appeal No.142 of 2006 is by the accused assailing the impugned judgment of their convictions and sentences. The case of the prosecution is that on 23.8.2001 when Jeet Singh [PW 57], one of the employees of deceased - Relu Ram, and A-2 were sitting at the Saw Mill located by the side of Farm House of Relu Ram, a telephone call was received by A-2 from A-1 conveying her desire to celebrate Priyanka's [deceased sister of A-1] birthday at the Kothi at Litani Mor [place of occurrence] and that she would bring her from the hostel of Jindal School at Hisar the school she was studying in. At about 9.30 p.m. A-1 along with Priyanka reached home in a jeep. Thereafter, between 11 12 p.m., on hearing some noise of footsteps, PW 57, who was present at the Farm House, woke up and noticed that light in the room, where the spare parts of tractors etc. were kept, was on and upon inquiry found that A-1 was there in the room and he saw her taking a rod to the first floor which rod is used for raising/tilting the tractor from the ground. He again heard the noise of explosion of fire works, but, thinking that Priyanka's birthday was being celebrated, he went to sleep. PW 57 further stated that on 24.8.2001 at about 4.45 a.m. when he was sitting on his cot, he saw A-1 coming down and taking the Jeep at a very fast speed and returning after half an hour. Thereafter, at about 5.30 a.m. Ram Phal, the Milk Vendor, brought milk, but on seeing him coming upstairs, A-1 instructed him to leave the milk on the ground floor. At about 6.15 a.m. the School Van came to take Lokesh [deceased], son of Sunil [deceased], but it left after waiting for some time as Lokesh did not come down despite blowing of horn. PW 57 thereafter sent Rohtas, another servant of Relu Ram, to the first floor for bringing Lokesh down for being dropped in the School on motor-cycle. Upon being called by Rohtas, PW 57 went to the first floor and found that A-1 was lying in the porch with froth coming out of her mouth and was mumbling that she be saved and Sanjiv [A-2] be called. Reaching inside the house, PW 57 found that Relu Ram [father], Krishna [mother], Sunil [brother], Shakuntala [sister-in-law], Priyanka @ Pamma [sister], Lokesh [nephew] and Shivani and Preeti [nieces] of A-1 had been murdered in different rooms. He also found that Shakuntla's hands and feet were tied with cot. The tractor rod that PW 57 had seen A-1 removing from the room on the previous night was lying on the bed of A-1. Noticing a letter [Suicide Note Ext. 227] lying on the bed of A- 1 written in Hindi, PW 57 picked up the same and left for the Ulkana Police Station. While giving description of what had been seen by him at the place of occurrence and handing over the said Suicide Note to S.I. Vinod Kumar, PW 59, PW 57 also stated that it may be possible that A-1 under a conspiracy had either administered some poisonous substance or made them to inhale poisonous thing and upon becoming unconscious they had been murdered. It was further stated by him that about six months prior to this incident, A-1 with an intention to kill deceased Sunil had also fired a shot from the licensed gun of deceased Relu Ram over a dispute of property, but the matter was hushed up in the house. On the basis of sequence of events that had taken place at the place of occurrence from the evening of 23rd August until 24th morning, described by PW 57 to PW 59 and the Suicide Note alleged to have been written by A-1, FIR was registered in the Ulkana Police Station at 8.15 a.m. by PW 59 wherein contents of Suicide Note were also reproduced. On completion of the investigation, chargesheet was submitted against A-1, A-2 and eight other accused persons, cognizance taken and they were committed to the court of Sessions to face trial.

Defence of the accused persons was that they were innocent and falsely implicated. The stand taken by A-1 was that she was picked up by the police of CIA Staff on 24th August from Faridabad and was brought to Hisar, kept in illegal custody, tortured and threatened that in case she would not make the statement according to what they say, her only son would be killed and thereafter they forcibly obtained her signatures on blank papers. A-2 took the defence, inter alia, that he was falsely implicated at the instance of the employees of Relu Ram who had embezzled a lot of money of his father- in-law and by those people who had taken a loan from him and that it were they who had committed the murder of Relu Ram and his family members.

So far as A-1 is concerned, the prosecution case principally rests on (1) the Suicide Note [Ext. 227] alleged to have been written by her wherein she admitted having murdered eight persons, including three tiny tots, who were none other than her own immediate family members, (2) the judicial confession [Ext. 187] made by her to the Magistrate in the hospital where she was removed by the Police immediately after the occurrence and (3) bloodstained clothes of A-1, blood group of which tallied with the blood group of deceased Sunil and Lokesh.

Turning now to the medical evidence, Dr. Sanjay Sheoran [PW.1], Dr. R.S. Dalal, [PW.2], and Dr. Arun Gupta [PW.15], who conducted the autopsy on the dead bodies of the deceased, have opined that the injuries found on the persons of the deceased were ante mortem in nature, were sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature and that injuries could be caused with the iron rod. We have already referred to the testimony of PW 57 wherein he stated that he had seen A- 1 removing the iron rod from the store room at the place of occurrence on the night of 23rd August, 2001 which iron rod was recovered from the bed of A-1 at the place of occurrence by the prosecution. The medical evidence that injuries could be caused with the iron rod, the statement of PW.57 that he had seen A-1 removing the iron rod from the store room at the place of occurrence and its recovery from the bed of A-1 leave no scope for any doubt about the veracity of the prosecution case as against A-1. Finding of bloodstains on the salwar of A- 1 and its matching with the blood group of deceased Sunil and Lokesh further strengthens the case of the prosecution. Insofar as other submissions made by learned counsel appearing on behalf of the accused qua ante-timing of FIR, tampering of Exts. 193 and 194 and non-lifting of finger prints are concerned, we need hardly add anything to the exhaustive discussion in the elaborate judgments rendered by the trial court and the High Court while dealing with identical submissions.

The first circumstance in the chain is the presence of A-2 at Hisar. A-1 in her judicial confession made to PW.62 has stated that she along with A-2 had gone to the Jindal Public School to pick deceased Priyanka @ Pamma for celebrating her birthday at the Kothi at Litani Mor, the place of occurrence. A-1 has further stated that while they were returning, due to some altercation between A-1 and A-2 which ensued after Priyanka @ Pamma informed A-2 of infidelity that A-1 was having with someone, A-2 got down of the vehicle at Hisar and went away and did not return. That getting down of A-2 on the way after the altercation was a part of the plan hatched by A-1 and A-2 to give a slip to the investigating agency to mislead it, is discernable from the evidence of Paramjeet Singh, PW.12, who owns a Fast Food and Bakery Shop at Camp Chowk, Hisar. In his evidence, he has stated that on 23.8.2001, A-1 accompanied by a man and a girl visited his shop and that the accompanying girl was calling the man as "Jijaji". That A-2 did not alight from the vehicle on the way and was with A-1 all the time could be elicited from the statement of A-1 made to PW.62, relevant portion of which is reproduced below:

24.8.2001 when he was at the taxi stand at Kaithal, A-2 hired his taxi at 7.30 a.m. for going to Panipat and that at that time he was carrying a bag on his shoulder. He has further stated that on the way A-2 got down from the Taxi at Jaidev STD Booth at Kaithal to make a call to Saharanpur and that after making the call he boarded the taxi again and was dropped by him at Panipat. PW.45, who owned STD Booth at Kaithal, in his deposition has confirmed the factum of A-2 having made a telephone call from his STD booth on the morning of 24th August at Saharanpur on telephone No. 729285. He has also identified A-2 in Court. That A-2 made a call at 7.20 a.m. on 24th August from the STD Booth of PW.45 on telephone No. 0132-729285 has been confirmed by PW.43 Rajinder Parshad, SDE of Telephone Exchange, Kaithal, on the basis of list of outgoing telephone calls made from the said STD Booth in his testimony. K.A. Khan, Divisional Engineer, Telephones, at Saharanpur, in his testimony has stated that telephone No. 729285 on which A-2 made call from Kaithal stands in the name of Sanjiv Kumar. Analysis of evidence of the aforesaid witnesses leads to only one conclusion that A-1 had left the place of occurrence in the morning of 24th August along with A-2 so as to provide him a safe exit and to give a slip to the prosecution. This is the fourth circumstance that the prosecution has been able to establish.

The fifth and the last circumstance in the chain on which the prosecution has relied is the recovery of ash of the bloodstained clothes of A-1 and A-2 which were burnt by A-2 and chain and two buttons of the bag he was carrying to which we now advert. During interrogation, A-2 disclosed that after the occurrence his and A-1's bloodstained clothes were put by him in a plastic bag and those were burnt by him in the fields near village Bhainswal. The police party thereafter was taken to the place where A-2 had burnt his and A-1's bloodstained cloths and plastic bag from where the police team recovered the ash, chain and two buttons of the burnt plastic bag. The fact that A-2 was carrying a bag in his hand on 24th August, 2001 finds mention in the statements of PWs. 39 and 55. Therefore, in view of the recovery of ash of the bloodstained clothes and that of the bag at the instance of A-2, in our view, the prosecution has been able to establish this last link also in the chain of circumstances. We now turn to the extra-judicial confession made by A-2 to Sunder Singh, PW.48, which, in the submission of learned counsel appearing on behalf of the accused, having been made to a stranger, cannot be relied upon. PW.48 Sunder Singh, in his testimony, has stated that on receiving a message from Brahm Singh, cousin of A-1's mother, on 17.9.2001, he went to Shamli and met Brahm Singh, who told him that Relu Ram and his family have been killed by both A-1 and A-2. After some time, A-2 also reached there and told PW.48 that he and his wife have killed the entire Relu Ram family with iron rod and the reason given for committing the crime was that Relu Ram was not parting with the share of A-1 in the property. A- 2 also told PW.48 about his clandestine entry to and exit from the place of occurrence. On a suggestion made by PW.48 to A- 2 to surrender before the police, A-2 promised him that he would come on 19th September, 2001. PW.48 thereafter informed the police about the incident on 17th September itself. On 19th September, 2001 Brahm Singh and PW.48 produced A-2 at PWD Rest House, Panipat before DSP Mahender Singh and he was arrested. PW. 48, in his testimony, has stated that A-2 himself told him about his clandestine ingress to and egress from the Kothi at Litani Mor by hiding himself in the middle seat of the vehicle and that he was dropped by A-1 at Village Jajanwala on Narwana Road in the morning. The confession made to PW.48 is supported by the fact that the weapon used in the crime i.e., tractor rod, mention of which has been made by A-2 in his confession to PW.48, was found on the bed of A-1 and on the disclosure statement made by A-2 to the police, the ash of the bloodstained clothes of his and A-1 and that of the bag containing the said clothes was also recovered. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the accused has submitted that PW.48 being a stranger to A-2 and Brahm Singh, who was not examined by the prosecution on the pretext of having been won over, having been remotely connected to PW.48 no reliance should be placed on the confession made by A-2 before PW.48. In our view, the submission has been made only to be rejected for the reason that in his testimony PW.48 has stated that he had attended the betrothal ceremony and marriage of A-2. Therefore, question of his being stranger to A-2 does not arise. However, it is well settled by a catena of decisions rendered by this Court that extra-judicial confession made even to a stranger cannot be eschewed from consideration if it is found to have been truthful and voluntarily made before a person who has no reason to state falsely. In the case of Gura Singh vs. State of Rajasthan, (2001) 2 SCC 205, the evidentiary value to be attached to the extra-judicial confession has been explained at page 212 thus:-

As a result of our above discussion, we hold that the case against A-1 has been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt and, therefore, order of conviction of A-1 passed by the trial court and upheld by the High Court is unassailable.

In the light of the law already laid down by this Court referred to above, now this Court is called upon to consider whether the present case would come within the realm of the rarest of the rare or not.

The instant case is one wherein accused Sonia, along with accused Sanjiv [her husband] has not only put an end to the lives of her step brother and his whole family, which included three tiny tots of 45 days, 2-1/2 years and 4 years, but also her own father, mother and sister in a very diabolic manner so as to deprive her father from giving the property to her step brother and his family. The fact that murders in question were committed in such a diabolic manner while the victims were sleeping, without any provocation whatsoever from the victims' side indicates the cold-blooded and premeditated approach of the accused to cause death of the victims. The brutality of the act is amplified by the grotesque and revolting manner in which the helpless victims have been murdered which is indicative of the fact that the act was diabolic of most superlative degree in conception and cruel in execution and that both the accused persons are not possessed of the basic humanness and completely lack the psyche or mind set which can be amenable for any reformation. If this act is not revolting or dastardly, it is beyond comprehension as to what other act can be so. In view of these facts we are of the view that there would be failure of justice in case death sentence is not awarded in the present case as the same undoubtedly falls within the category of rarest of rare cases and the High Court was not justified in commuting death sentence into life imprisonment. In the result Criminal Appeal No. 142 of 2006 filed by the accused persons is dismissed whereas Criminal Appeal No. 895 of 2005 filed by private prosecutor and Criminal Appeal No. 894 of 2005 filed by the State of Haryana are allowed, order passed by the High Court commuting death sentence into life imprisonment is set aside and order of the trial court awarding death sentence is restored.