MOHINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused-appellants belong to sakkanwali village, Police Station Sadar muktsar, District Muktsar, Punjab. The deceased Harbans Singh was the neighbour of the appellants. There was a dispute on the demarcation of the Shamlat land. Some portion of this land is claimed by the accused- appellants and some of the land was being claimed by Harbans Singh, the deceased. The Shamlat land has not been demarcated nor a particular portion of the land was in exclusive possession of either the appellants or the complainant party. As per the First information Report lodged by Harvinder Kaur at 10. 30 p. m. on 23rd February, 1996, the prosecution story unfolded is, that on 23rd february 1996 at about 5.30 p. m. , the complainant Harvinder Kaur (PW-1) along with jasvinder Kaur (PW-2) , wife of Jaspal singh, were making cow-dung cakes in the shalmat land. Harbans Singh after providing fodder to the cattle was talking to Jaspal singh. In the meantime, Mohinder Singh (A-1) and Nasib Singh (A-3) , armed with licensed 12 bore double barrel guns, Naginder singh (A-6) armed with dang, Sukhdev singh (A-5) armed with kassia, Beant Singh (A-2) armed with kirpan and Nirbhai Singh (A-4) armed with kassruli came to the spot. Mohinder Singh (A-1) raised lalkara that the complainant party be taught a lesson for grabbing and making addition of the land of the accused with that of the land of the complainant party. Then Mohinder Singh fired shot from his licensed gun at Harbans Singh, which hit him on the left side of the chest. When the complainant (PW-1) ran towards her husband to save him, Nasib Singh (A-3) fired a shot from his double barrel 12 bore gun, which hit her on the ankle of left foot. At that time Mohinder Singh fired another shot, which hit on the interior side of the right thigh of Harbans Singh, the deceased. At the same time Naginder Singh (A-6) gave dang blows to Jaspal Singh and Nasib Singh again fired shot on the right leg of Jasvinder Kaur. An alarm was raised which attracted gurbans Singh and Mander Singh sons of gurdev Singh, Pritam Singh and Gurmit singh sons of Bhag Singh, Madan Singh son of Avtar Singh and Mukhtiar Singh son of mehar Singh, residents of Sakkanwali Village. When they tried to intervene and rescue the members of the complainant party, mohinder Singh and Nasib Singh fired shots at them hitting the right flank of Madan Singh and left leg of Pritam Singh. Similarly, sukhdev Singh, Beant Singh and Nirbhai singh caused injuries to Mander Singh, gurbans Singh, Mukhtiar Singh and Gurmit singh. After causing the aforesaid injuries, all the accused ran away with their respective weapons. Thereafter, Gurmit Singh arranged for the vehicle and took the injured to the Civil Hospital, Muktsar. However, harbans Singh succumbed to his injuries on his way to the hospital. The remaining injured were got admitted to the Civil Hospital at Muktsar.

(2.) The inquest report of the dead body of harbans Singh was prepared in the presence of Jaspal Singh and Mander Singh. The special report reached the Illaqa Magistrate at 5. 00 a. m. on 24th February, 1996. After the investigation the accused persons were arrested and prosecuted.

(3.) Appellants Mohinder Singh, Sukhdev singh and Naginder Singh had taken the plea of alibi stating that on the date of occurrence they along with Bachittar Singh and Harmanjit Singh had gone to the village Jharriwala to see a match for the grand daughter of Naginder Singh and had returned late in the night. As such they were not present on the date at the place of occurrence and had been falsely implicated by the complainant side. The other appellants while admitting the incident asserted that Harvinder Kaur had given wrong version of the facts, in fact, Nasib singh was present at his house. Nirbhai singh and Beant Singh came to know that harbans Singh (deceased) , Jaspal Singh (PW-9) , Gurdev Singh, Mander Singh armed with gandasas along with some other persons were placing cow-dung cakes in their plot/land to take forceful possession of the land and when Nirbhai Singh and Beant Singh went to the spot to make enquiries, the aforesaid persons attacked them and caused injuries. Nasib Singh, gurmail Singh and Angrez Singh intervened to save Nirbhai Singh and Beant singh. Gurmail Singh and Angrez Singh caused injuries to the complainant's side. It was further asserted that in the meanwhile, some other persons collected there and Nasib Singh in self-defence of his property and person fired shots which hit the complainant's side.