DARA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Dara Singh alias Dari and his brother Inder Singh alongwith two others were sent up to take their trial for having committed the murder of Sardara Singh on the 19th of October, 1950, at Dulchipur. They were committed to take their trial by Mr. Hardayal Singh, Magistrate 1st Class and the trial was held by Mr. Gurdial Singh, Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar. The learned Judge found Dara Singh and Inder Singh guilty under section 302, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced Dara Singh to death and Inder Singh to transportation for life. He found that the case against the companions of these persons was not proved and gave them the benefit of the doubt and acquitted them. This order of the Additional Sessions Judge was passed on the 26th March, 1951 whereupon the convicts appealed to this Court and the case also sent for confirmation of the sentence of death under and the provision of section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(2.) The story against the appellants was simple enough. In broad day-light the two appellants and their two companions came armed to a pond where the deceased was bathing his buffalo. One of them i.e. Indar Singh, instigated the others to kill the deceased Sardara Singh. The other three went into the pond and killed Sardara Singh in water and drowned his body there in the pond. This incident was witnessed by a number of persons some of whom were produced before the trial Court. After the commission of the offence, all four ran away. All the accused were arrested a day later. From the house of one of them (Indar Singh) were found a shirt. a chaddar a barchha and takwa which were later found to be stained with human blood. The barchha was the one used by Dara Singh appellant.

(3.) The motive alleged was that Dalip Singh, the brother of the two appellants, was murdered by Sardara Singh, deceased, his brother Gurmukh Singh, one of the eye-witnesses to the present occurrence, and two others about a year earlier. All the four had been convicted by the Sessions Judge, but this Court acquitted Sardara Singh deceased and his brother Gurmukh Singh who is the first (sic) in present in this case.