Dharminder Singh @ Vijay Singh vs State

2. The prosecution case, in short, is that on 26.08.2000 the accused- appellants alongwith two other co-accused, namely, Gyan Chand Kashyap @ Kalu and Mohd. Tayyab Alam had hired Maruti Van No. DL 3CR 1271 to go to Haridwar. The said Van was driven by deceased Krishan Kumar and was registered in the name of his son Anirudh Kumar (PW-8). According to the prosecution the four persons including the two accused appellants were seen driving off in the vehicle with the deceased in the driver’s seat by PW-4 Jitender Kumar, another son of the deceased. According to the prosecution, PW-4 was called by the deceased to Kaushik Travels to deliver fresh clothes to the deceased and at the said place he had met the accused appellants, including accused Dharminder who is a friend of his brother Anirudh. They told PW-4 that they had hired the vehicle to go to Haridwar. Though the deceased was supposed to return on the next day he did not do so and, in fact, in the morning of 27.08.2000 an un-identified dead body was recovered from beneath a bridge at a place near Haridwar. The same was later identified to be that of Krishan Kumar. According to the prosecution on 29.08.2000 at about 9.15 P.M. the vehicle in question, i.e., Maruti Van bearing Registration No. DL 3CR 1271 was intercepted at Purnia, Bihar and the accused appellants and the other two co-accused persons were apprehended from the said vehicle. The aforesaid persons were later identified by PW-4 Jitender Kumar to be the persons who had hired the vehicle on 26.08.2000 to go to Haridwar.

3. To prove and establish its case the prosecution had examined 25 witnesses and had also exhibited a large number of documents. The events leading to the death of Krishan Kumar and the apprehension of the accused having taken place at three different places, i.e., Delhi, Haridwar and Purnia at Bihar, the evidence of the prosecution may be conveniently noticed from the sequence of the events that had occurred at the aforesaid three places.

5. The scrutiny of the evidence of PWs 4, 8, 24 and 25 would go to show that on 26.08.2000 sometime in the afternoon PW-4 Jitender Kumar was asked by the deceased to come to Kaushik Travels with fresh clothes as he was required to go to Haridwar. PW-4 reached Kaushik Travels and came to know that the accused appellants and two other persons, namely, Gyan Chand Kashyap @ Kalu and Mohd. Tayyab Alam had hired the vehicle to go to Haridwar. According to PW-4 accused appellant Dharminder was known to him from before as he is a friend of his elder brother, PW-8. PW-4 further deposed that he was informed by his father (deceased Krishan Kumar) that he would return on the next day. PW-4 had made a statement to the police (Exh.-PW-4/A) on the basis of which the FIR in the case was registered. This witness had also identified the appellants and the other two co- accused on 4.11.2000/5.11.2000 after they were arrested and brought to Delhi from Purnia.

PW-8 Anirudh Kumar on the other hand deposed that he was informed on 26.08.2000 by his younger brother Jitender Kumar (PW-4) that their father had gone driving the vehicle to Haridwar with four passengers and he was to come back the next day. According to PW-8 accused Dharminder was known to him as he was his class fellow. PW-8 had further deposed that on 28.08.2000 he received a call from Purnia, Bihar about the recovery of the Maruti Van and apprehension of four persons who had informed the police that they had killed the driver of the vehicle and kept the dead body under a bridge at a place near Haridwar. According to PW-8 the voice on the telephone appeared to be that of accused Dharminder but before the same could be ascertained the telephone call was disconnected. Thereafter, he informed police station Uttam Nagar of the telephone call received by him and on receipt of the said information DD-10A was recorded at the police station.

12. Applying the law consistently laid down by this Court including the principles noticed in Vadlakonda Lenin (supra) to the facts of the present case, we are left with no doubt whatsoever that the circumstances proved by the prosecution, in the absence of any reasonable explanation on the part of the accused, cannot give rise to any other conclusion except that it is the accused alone who had abducted deceased Krishan Kumar and had killed him at Haridwar. We, therefore, have to conclude that the conviction of the accused appellants do not call for any interference. Accordingly, we affirm the conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court, as upheld by the High Court. Both the appeals consequently are dismissed.

...………………………CJI.

.........……………………J. [RANJAN GOGOI] New Delhi, August 12, 2013.