Fazl Ali, J. - (1.) .-The three appellants were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge at Amritsar and found guilty of having murdered two persons named Darshan Singh and Achhar Singh and sentenced to transportation for life. The High Court of Punjab upheld their conviction and sentence and granted them a certificate under Art. 134 (1) (c) of the Constitution that the case is a fit one for appeal to this Court. Hence this appeal
(2.) The facts of the case may be briefly stated as follows On the evening of 16-12-1948, a little before sunset, Achhar Singh, one of the murdered persons went to the house of one Inder Singh in village Dalam for getting paddy husked. Achhar Singh's brother, Darshan Singh, who was working as a driver at Amritsar. came to Dalam from Amritsar the same evening, and on coming to know from his father that Achhar Singh had gone to Inder Singh's house, he also went there. While the two brothers were returning home, they were attacked by the three appellants and two of their relatives in a lane adjoining Inder Singh's house. The five assailants. who were armed with deadly weapons, inflicted a number of injuries on the two victims, as a result of which they died then and there After the murder, the appellants and their companions tied the two dead bodies in two kheses (wrappers) and took them to village Saleempura where two other persons named Ajib Singh and Banta Singh, joined them, and the dead bodies after being dismembered were thrown into a stream known as Sakinala at a place about five miles from village Dalam.Bala Singh father of the deceased persons, who was one of the persons who claims to have witnessed the occurrence, did not leave the village at night on account of fear, but he started about two hours before sunrise on the next morning and lodged the first information report at 10 A. M. at the nearest police station. A police officer arrived in village Dalam shortly afterwards, and, after investigation, a charge-sheet was submitted against seven persons including the present appellants. At the trial, five of the accused were charged with offences under S. 302 read with S. 149 and under S. 201 read with S. 149 Penal Code, and the remaining two accused were charged with the offence under S. 201 read with S. 149 of that Code. The learned Judge who tried the accused, convicted the appellants and two other persons under S. 302 read with S. 149, Penal Code and sentenced them to transportation for life, and convicted Ajaib Singh under S. 201 read with S. 149 and sentenced him to three years R. I. Banta Singh, accused, was acquitted. On appeal the Punjab High Court upheld the conviction of the present appellants and acquitted the remaining three persons.
(3.) Before proceeding to discuss the evidence in the case, it is necessary to refer to what has been described as the motive for the murder. It appears that in June, 1947, Natha Singh, father of the third appellant, Swaran Singh, was murdered, and Darshan Singh and Achhar Singh, the two murdered persons in the case before us, and their third brother, Sulakhan Singh, were charged with the murder of that person. As a result of the trial. Darshan Singh was acquitted and Achhar Singh was sentenced to 11/2 years R. I., while Sulakhan Singh was sentenced to 7 years' R. I. The Judgment of the Sessions Judge in that case was delivered shortly before the date of the present occurrence, and it is common ground that Achhar Singh had been released on bail by the appellate Court and was at large at that time.It is said that the appellants and their relatives felt aggrieved by the acquittal of Darshan Singh and by the light sentence passed on Achhar Singh. And therefore committed this murder in a spirit of frustration and revenge. It was conceded before us by the learned counsel for the appellants that the facts stated above constituted a strong motive for the murder, but he also contended that they constituted an equally strong motive for the appellants being falsely implicated in case the murder was committed, as was suggested by him in circumstances under which the murderers could not be seen or identified. It therefore becomes necessary to set out the evidence adduced by the prosecution in support of the murder.;