(1.) MEHNGA Singh, aged forty years, has been convicted Under Section 302, Penal Code, for the murder of Dipo and Under Section 307, Penal Code, for the attempted murder of Parsinni. He has been sentenced to death tinder Section 302, Penal Code, and to four years' rigorous imprisonment Under Section 307, Penal Code, with the direction that the convict shall undergo the sentence of imprisonment only if the sentence of death is not confirmed by the High Court. Mehnga 8ingh appeals and the proceedings are before up under chap. 27, Criminal P. C. , for the confirmation of the sentence of death.
(2.) THE facts so far as material are that on 1st June 1948 at about noon time Mehnga Singh convict is stated to have murdered Dipo, aged eight years, and injured Parsinni, Now, Parsinni, P. W. 2, is the wedded wife of Mehnga Singb and Dipo was the daughter of Parsinni from her former husband Hazara Singh.
(3.) THE motive for the crime according to the statement of Parsinni, P. W. 2, was that on 31st May 1948, she had prepared chasku (a sort of sweetmeat to purify blood) at a cost of bs. 2/s/-for her children as they were suffering from boils and she gave some of it to Mebnga Singh convict to eat but the litter refused and resented its preparation and became angry with her. The statement of Pareinni, P. W. 2, seems to suggest that the accused considered her a liability as he was maintaining her and two of her children from Hazara Singh, former husband of Parsinni, and thought that she was extravagant and spent lavishly over her children. In her statement recorded on 8th June 1948, in the Amritsar hospital, she gave a different account of the motive for the incident. She is proved to have stated that shortly after the marriage her relations with Mehnga Singh be. came strained so much so that Mehnga Singh started keeping the keys of the house with him and pressed by household necessities he pawned some of her ornaments which led to a quarrel' with Parsinni. She accordingly left the house of Mehnga Singh convict and went to Faqir Chand, P. W. 19. Eventually a settlement was brought between them and she returned to him but the ornaments remained pawned as before. She is further proved to have stated that on her insistence Mehnga Singh convict got prepared a pair of gold earrings and a gold ring for her but he stole them, after a few days and that again led to quarrels between them. Indeed, at one stage she stated that she did not know the cause of the attack or the murder at all.