Paramjeet Singh @ Pamma vs State Of Uttarakhand

2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this case are that an FIR was lodged on 27.4.2000 at 6.40 P.M. with Police Station, Rudrapur, by complainant Ajit Singh (PW.1) alleging that his grand father Hardayal Singh had given certain shares in his immovable properties to his three sons, namely, Gopal Singh, Joginder Singh and Mahender Singh and denied a share to his father Inderjit Singh and uncle Paramjit Singh, the appellant. The appellant had fraudulently sold a plot at Rudrapur and to prevent him from repeating such act, appellant's father Hardayal Singh executed a General Power of Attorney, as well as a Will, dated 27.04.2000 in respect of one of his properties in favour of the complainant's father, Inderjit Singh and thus, the appellant became annoyed. The appellant misbehaved with his father Hardayal Singh and brother Inderjit Singh and threatened them with dire consequences, at the office of the Sub-Registrar at Kichcha.

3. On the same day in the evening at 5.45 P.M., the complainant Ajit Singh (PW.1), his father Inderjit Singh and brothers Surender Singh, Saranjit Singh alongwith Satwant Singh and Gurmit Singh went to drop Hardayal Singh at his residence in Matkawali Gali. When they were alighting from the car, the appellant Paramjit Singh and two or three of his associates were sitting there. The appellant, with an intention to kill them, started firing. Thus, complainant's father Inderjit Singh, his brothers Surender Singh and Saranjit Singh, died on the spot and complainant Ajit Singh (PW.1), his brother Baljit Singh (PW.2) and his grand-father Hardayal Singh got injured. The incident was witnessed by Gurmit Singh (PW.3), Satwant Singh (PW.4) and cousins of complainant Ajit Singh (PW.1), Rajinder Kumar (PW.5), Harpal Singh (PW.6) and Hira Lal (PW.7).

4. The Investigating Officer recovered and prepared the Seizure Memos of plain soil, blood soaked soil, three empty cartridges and a turban. The dead bodies of the aforesaid three persons were recovered vide Panchnama and postmortems were conducted on the bodies of all the three deceased on 28.4.2000 in the Base Hospital, Haldwani. The other injured persons, namely, Ajit Singh (PW.1), Baljit Singh (PW.2) and Hardayal Singh were examined medically.

5. During the investigation on 4.5.2000, the Investigating Officer recovered the licensed Gun of the appellant, on the disclosure made by appellant himself, from an Arms Dealer at Rampur and the recovery memo and site plan of the place of recovery was prepared. The empty cartridges and recovered Gun were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Agra and other materials e.g., blood soaked soil and the clothes etc. of the deceased were also sent to FSL, Agra for chemical analysis.

6. The Investigating Officer completed the investigation and submitted the charge-sheet against the appellant. He denied the charges and claimed trial. The prosecution examined 8 witnesses to substantiate its case before the trial Court. Out of 8 witnesses, 7 turned hostile. After conclusion of the trial, the learned Sessions Court vide its judgment and order dated 9.8.2001 found the appellant guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 307 IPC and awarded the sentences mentioned hereinabove.

7. Being aggrieved, the appellant preferred Criminal Appeal No.1767 of 2001 before the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital 4 which has been dismissed vide impugned judgment and order dated 30.4.2004. Hence, this appeal.

9. Per contra, Shri Sunil Kumar Singh, learned counsel appearing for the State of Uttarakhand has vehemently opposed the appeal contending that appellant had been found guilty of committing murder of 3 members of his own family and injuring 3 other family members. The informant Ajit Singh (PW.1) and Baljit Singh (PW.2) have admitted that they were present at the place of occurrence. They 6 suffered injuries but denied the involvement of the appellant in the crime altogether. The other eye-witnesses even denied their presence at the place of occurrence itself. In such a fact-situation, where all the witnesses had been won over by the appellant, as the family had pardoned the appellant, the case otherwise stood proved by circumstantial evidence. The courts below have rightly convicted the appellant. All relevant questions had been put to the appellant under Section 313 Cr.P.C., and the appellant could not explain his whereabouts at the time of occurrence of the incident. The case of the prosecution has duly been supported by the medical evidence as well as the other material collected by the Investigating Officer during the investigation. The appeal lacks merit and is liable to be dismissed.

37. The other witnesses Gurmit Singh (PW.3), Satwant Singh (PW.4), Rajinder Kumar (PW.5), Harpal Singh (PW.6) and Hira Lal (PW.7) had even denied their presence on the spot. Harpal Singh 24 (PW.6) deposed that he had reached the place of occurrence after the commission of the offence. None of the said eye-witnesses supported the case of the prosecution in spite of the fact that all of them had named the appellant as an assailant in their respective statements made under Section 161 Cr.P.C.

41. The witnesses i.e. Ajit Singh (PW.1) and Baljit Singh (PW.2) in their respective depositions have admitted their presence at the place of incident and admitted to suffering those injuries. In their statements under Section 161 Cr.P.C. they have also admitted that they suffered the aforesaid injuries at the hands of the appellant. It was at a later stage that they have denied any role of the appellant. Their statements to that effect are not trustworthy for the simple reason that they failed to offer any explanation for why they assigned the said role to the appellant in their statements under Section 161 Cr.P.C. and why the appellant had been named by Ajit Singh (PW.1) 30 while lodging the FIR. It is relevant to note that the witnesses, namely, Ajit Singh (PW.1) and Baljit Singh (PW.2) have also deposed that after the incident, a Panchayat was convened and it pardoned the appellant. The version of convening the Panchayat and grant of pardon to the appellant has duly been supported by Gurmit Singh (PW.3) and Satwant Singh (PW.4).

26 Postmortem Reports :

40. Injury Reports :

Opinion : The above injuries were caused by fire arm. Fresh. 29 III. The medical examination report of Shri Hardayal Singh (Ex.Ka.36) is as under:

ray advised.

ii) Punctured wound = cm x = cm round with level of 1st thoracic vertebra. Bleeding. X-ray advised.

iii) Punctured wound = cm x = cm on left scapula.

Bleeding. X-ray advised.

It is evident from the above that the appellant had caused a very large number of injuries.

Gurmit Singh (PW.3) deposed:

Satwant Singh (PW.4) deposed:

It is pertinent to mention here that injured Hardayal Singh could not be examined as he died of cancer during the trial.

42. It is evident from the above that the view taken by the courts below, that the eye-witnesses turned hostile because of the decision taken in the Panchayat, pardoning the appellant, does not require any interference.

(iii) abscondance of the appellant; and (iv) compromise in Panchayat which pardoned the appellant.

48. If the case is considered in the totality of the circumstances, also taking into consideration the gravity of the charges, the appellant had killed his real brother, Inderjit Singh and his nephews, Surender Singh and Saranjit Singh and injured his father Hardayal Singh and nephews Ajit Singh (PW.1) and Baljit Singh (PW.2) in broad day light. The FIR had been lodged promptly, naming the appellant as the person who committed the offence. All the eye-witnesses, including the injured witnesses, attributed the commission of the offence only to the appellant in their statements under Section 161 Cr.P.C. It is difficult to imagine that the complainant and the eye- witnesses had all falsely named the appellant as being the person responsible for the offence at the initial stage itself. 35 Thus, we do not see any cogent reasons to interfere with the concurrent findings of fact by the courts below. The appeal lacks merit and is hereby dismissed.

..................................J. (P. SATHASIVAM) ......