- (1.) Five appellants, namely, Rajit Singh, Santokh Singh, Roshan Kaur, Vir Kaur and Bimla Kaur are before us, aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 2.3.2004 passed by the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 282/2000, whereby and whereunder the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jallandhar on 23.5.2000 in Sessions Case No. 44/1999 was affirmed.
(2.) Appellants before us, together with Dalip Singh, elder brother-in-law of the deceased as also her husband Hari Singh, were tried for commission of an offence of murdering Harbhajan Kaur on 21.8.1997 at about 7.30 a.m.. Before we advert to the factual matrix involved in this appeal, we may notice that whereas the aforementioned Ranjit Singh and Dalip Singh have since expired, Hari Singh husband of the deceased has been acquitted by the High Court upon grant of benefit of doubt.
(3.) The prosecution case rests on the dying declarations made by the deceased, the first of which was recorded by Onkar Singh, Investigating Officer on 21.8.1997 at about 11.30 a.m. The said dying declaration was treated to be the first information report and on the basis thereof investigation commenced. As we would have to consider the aforesaid dying declaration for the purpose of appreciation of evidence in this case, we would do better to take note of the same : "I am resident of Mithu Basti and am doing domestic work. My husband is working in a factory. I have two sons named Mohinder Pal and Amar Pal and a daughter named Rupinder Kaur. Today in the morning I had sent my children to school after preparing meals. It was about 7-1/2 O Clock in the morning. I was setting my clothes in the room then my father-in-law sprinkled kerosene oil from a stove on me and my mother- in-law Roshan Kaur and my sister-in-law Vir Kaur w/o Dalip Singh, Bimla Kaur w/o Santokh Singh and brother of my husband namely Dalip Singh and Santokh Singh caught hold of me and mother-in-law Roshan Kaur set me ablaze with a match stick. My husband at that time had gone to the toilet. All of them with intention to kill me have set me ablaze after pouring kerosene oil on me. My body was badly charred. My husband and his aunt (sister of mother- in-law) namely Pathani brought me to the hospital and got me admitted there. All the above said persons keeping quarrel with me and they used to pick up quarrel with me on every lame excuse. I was married in 1984 and since then they had been harassing me but my husband never harassed me.";