Dilbagh Singh vs State Of Punjab

2. Briefly stated, the case of the prosecution is that on 9.5.1992, Kirandeep Singh- the complainant (P.W. 7), son of Balkar Singh (P.W. 4), went to Inspector Swaran Singh, the Station House Officer (P.W. 15) who along with other police personnel was on patrol duty at Atalan bus stand and reported that he is a resident of village Atalan, P.S. Ghagga, District Patiala. They are four brothers, and two of his elder brothers are residing at Ludhiana, whereas he along with his third brother Jagmail Singh - the deceased and father Balkar Singh (P.W. 4) are residing in village Atalan and are engaged in the occupation of farming. It was his case that due to terrorism activities in the area, the Government has provided two rifles, one .303 bore and other 7.62 bore with cartridges to their family for self-protection and security. On 9.5.1992, at about 7:00 p.m. he and his brother Jagmail Singh were returning to their house from the fields carrying the said arms (complainant was armed with .303 and his brother armed with 7.62 bore). Dilbagh Singh, the accused-appellant along with Jasbir Singh and one more tall young man armed with fire arms suddenly appeared before them near the chowk of their house. Dilbagh Singh and Jasbir Singh are the residents of the same village. They both opened fire on Jagmail Singh who on receipt of fire arm injuries fell down on the ground. Thereafter, third accomplice, picked up the rifle of Jagmail Singh and shot at Jagmail Singh who died on the spot. The complainant took shelter by the side of a water channel and started firing in the air to scare the accused. The accused after sometime stopped firing. The complainant rushed to the place where Jagmail Singh was lying dead and his 7.62 bore rifle was taken by the accused.

3. Balkar Singh (P.W. 4) had witnessed the entire incident from his house. He rushed to the scene of occurrence. According to the complainant, the motive behind the murder was that before joining the main stream of the society his brother Jagmail Singh the deceased used to participate in the extremist activities with the accused. The deceased later on abandoned the extremist activities and got married. The accused still wanted the deceased to join their extremist activities, but since he refused to do so, the accused killed him on the count.

4. The complainant asked his father, Balkar Singh (P.W. 4) to guard the body of Jagmail Singh and himself went to P.S. Ghagga to lodge a report of the incident of murder to the police but he met the SHO on the way where his statement (Ex.P1) was recorded. The SHO endorsed Ex. P1 to the incharge of the Police Station for registration of the case, on the basis of which FIR No. 27 (Ex. P2) dated 09.05.1992 came to be registered for offences punishable under Sections 302/384 read with Section 34 IPC and Section 5 of TADA and Section 25 of the Arms Act. Inspector Swaran Singh (P.W. 15) rushed to the place of occurrence and inspected the spot and informed his superior officers and Army Officers requesting them to reach at the spot. He prepared the inquest report (Ex. PA) on the body of the deceased which was identified by Joginder Singh (P.W. 2) and ASI Jarnail Singh (P.W. 17), residents of the same village. On 10.5.1992, the body of the deceased was sent to Civil Hospital, Samana, with inquest and an application (Ex. PL) for conducting the post-mortem examination through police C. Ram Dia 1041 and C. Karnail Singh 2250.

5. On inspection of the spot, the Investigation Officer took into possession: (i) blood-stained earth vide recovery memo (Ex. PB); (ii) two empty cartridges of 7.62 bore vide recovery memo (Ex. PC); (iii) 20 empty cartridges of AK-47 rifle near the dead body vide recovery memo (Ex. PD); and (iv) 7 empty cartridges of .303 bore near from the dead body vide recovery memo (Ex. PE). All the articles were packed and sealed with seal SS in the presence of Mohinder Singh (P.W. 3). A rough site plan of the place of occurrence was prepared and marked Ex. PM. Statements of witnesses were recorded. All recovered articles were later on deposited with MHC Balwinder Singh (P.W. 12) at P.S. Ghagga.

6. On 10.5.1992 at 10:00 a.m., post mortem examination on the body of the deceased was conducted by Dr. Satish Arora (P.W. 5) who in his report (Ex.PF) reported that the cause of death of Jagmail Singh was gun shot injuries to brain and right lung resulting in his death which were sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. All the injuries were ante-mortem in nature.

7. The accused Dilbagh Singh @ Bagha was arrested on 17.9.1999 by Inspector Budh Ram (P.W. 14) who conducted the personal search of the accused and prepared personal search memo and disclosed the grounds of arrest to the accused vide separate memo. Blood-stained earth (Ex. PB) was sent to the Chemical Examiner whereas empty cartridges (Exs. PC, PD & PE) were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, Punjab. On receipt of the report of the Chemical Examiner and after completion of investigation, charge sheet was prepared and filed against accused Dilbagh Singh under Sections 302/382/34 IPC, Section 25 of the Arms Act and Section 5 of TADA. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed to be tried.

8. The prosecution in support of its case examined as many as 18 witnesses namely,: Dalip Singh (P.W. 1) was a witness of extra-judicial confession allegedly made by accused Dilbagh Singh, but he did not support the prosecution case; Joginder Singh (P.W. 2) identified the dead body of Jagmail Singh, Mohinder Singh (P.W. 3) resident of the village in whose presence the empty catridges and blood stained earth were taken into police possession from the spot by the Investigating Officer, proved the recovery memos in this regard Exs. PC, PD and PE. Balkar Singh (P.W. 4), father of the deceased is an eye witness of the occurrence; Dr. Satish Arora (P.W. 5), Medical Officer, who conducted the post mortem on the dead body of Jagmail Singh; MHC Manmohan Singh (P.W. 6) produced the original FIR register of this case; Kirandeep Singh (P.W. 7) the informant is the brother of the deceased; C. Tejinder Singh (P.W. 8) took the sealed parcels of catridges to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, Punjab; HC Kuldeep Singh (P.W. 9) proved the death of co-accused Jasbir Singh in police encounter and FIR No. 41 dated 29.5.1992 in this regard stood registered at P.S. Patran; SI Harminder Singh (P.W. 10) partly investigated this case; C. Hardam Singh (P.W. 11) took the parcels of the blood stained earth and blood stained clothes of the deceased and deposited the same in the office of Chemical Examiner, Patiala and MHC Balwinder Singh (P.W. 12) with whom the case property was deposited in the Malkhana by the Investigating Officer, P.W. 12 also proved that one rifle bearing No. 1050 with 50 live catridges along with other rifle of 7.62 bore and 25 catridges were issued to the complainant party for their security. ASI Grudev Singh (P.W. 13) also partly investigated this case proved the death of co-accused Jasbir Singh @ Pappu and Bawa Singh (the third co-accused with the appellant) in police encounter in some other case, Budh Ram (P.W. 14) (since retired) Inspector of Police arrested accused Dilbagh Singh @ Bagha on 17.9.1999 and proved his personal search memo and the grounds of arrest memo; Inspector Swaran Singh (P.W. 15), Investigating Officer of this case proved the investigation part of this case; Balbir Singh (P.W. 16) proved the report of the Chemical Examiner Exs PW16/A; Jarnail Singh (P.W. 17) the then Ahlmad in the court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class and Pardeep Kumar (P.W. 18), In- charge, FSL, Chandigarh, Punjab stated that the empty catridges could not be examined as the weapons were not recovered in this case.

9. The accused in his statement recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. denied the prosecution case and pleaded innocence. He stated that the deceased was a terrorist and was killed by the Police in an encounter and that he has been falsely implicated in this case by the Police to save its own skin. Three defence witnesses namely, SI Harminder Singh (D.W. 1), Darshan Singh (D.W. 2) and Amar Singh (D.W. 3) all residents of village Atalan were examined. The trial court, on appreciation of the oral and documentary evidence found the accused guilty of the offences punishable under Section 302/382 IPC and Section 5 of TADA and, accordingly, convicted and imposed the following sentences upon him which shall run concurrently:-

15. On independent scrutiny of the entire evidence produced on record, more particularly the testimony of eyewitnesses namely, Balkar Singh (P.W. 4) - father and informant Kirandeep Singh (P.W. 7) brother respectively of the deceased, it stands fully proved that on 9.5.1992, around 7:00 p.m., P.W. 7 and the deceased were returning to their house after doing routine agricultural pursuits in the fields. Dilbagh Singh the appellant along with Jasbir Singh and one more unknown accomplice armed with fire arms suddenly came and stood in front of them near the chowk located near their house and opened fire at Jagmail Singh and shot him dead. The unknown accomplice picked up 7.62 bore rifle of Jagmail Singh and started firing shots at the body of Jagmail Singh - the deceased. P.W. 7 took shelter behind the cover surrounding the water channel and opened fire in the air to scare the accused and after a short while the accused stopped firing and fled away from the place of occurrence. P. W. 7 rushed to the spot where his brother was lying dead and his rifle was found missing. Both these witnesses deposed with one voice that it was the appellant accompanied by Jasbir Singh a resident of their village and one more unknown accomplice who murdered the deceased and the motive behind the killing of Jagmail Singh was that he was a member of extremist activities with the appellant, but later on the deceased joined the main stream of the society and left extremist activities which offended Dilbagh Singh who wanted the participation of Jagmail Singh in the extremist activities but the deceased refused to rejoin their gang. The deceased after joining the main stream of the society also got married. The evidence of the eye witnesses could not be shattered by the prosecution and their evidence has been found trustworthy, reliable and free from any doubt.

21. In the result, for the afore-stated reasons, we find that there is no merit in the appeal and it is, accordingly, dismissed.