Fazl Ali, J. - (1.) This is an appeal by Sarwan Singh, Mukhtiar Singh and Amar Singh under S. 2(a) of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970 and is directed against the order of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana by which the appellant Sarwan Singh has been convicted under Section 302. I. P. C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life, whereas other two appellants Mukhtiar Singh and Amar Singh have been convicted under Section 302/34, I.P.C. and given the same sentence. The appellants along with five others were prosecuted for the offence of murdering Jit Singh deceased and a charge under Section 302/149, I.P.C. and a number of other charges were framed against them. All the accused were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge. Barnala who rejected the prosecution case in its entirety and acquitted all the accused persons of the charges framed against them. The State of Punjab filed an appeal before the High Court against the order of acquittal passed by the trial Court and after hearing the appeal, the High Court maintained the acquittal of the five accused other than the appellants. As regards the appellants, the High Court reversed the order of acquittal passed in their favour by the Additional Sessions Judge and found that the prosecution case against them had been proved beyond reasonable doubt and it accordingly convicted the appellants and sentenced them as indicated aforesaid. We might further mention here that the High Court completely reversed the findings on the merits of the prosecution case and held that generally the prosecution case was fully proved but as there were some doubtful features regarding the five other accused, whose acquittal was maintained, the High Court did not like to interfere but made it clear that this would not cast any reflection on the credibility of the witnesses of the prosecution which had been believed by the High Court.
(2.) This is rather an unfortunate case which as a result of a serious and deeprooted rivalry between the two partners of a liquor vend culminated in the murder of the deceased converting one of his friends into a foe who, animated by a desire to wreak vengeance, pounced upon the deceased with a party of eight persons and brutally murdered him.
(3.) The prosecution case may be summarised as follows: The appellant Sarwan Singh along with some other persons had obtained a licence for sale of country liquor in village Bhadaur and the deceased Jit Singh was also one of the partners in that business. Subsequently, however, Jit Singh was dropped and he started selling illicit liquor which appears to have seriously affected the business of Sarwan Singh's liquor vend and caused him considerable loss. This appears to have been the motive for Sarwan Singh to wreak vengeance on the deceased. According to prosecution, Pal Singh a villager of Bhadaur and an acquaintance of Jit Singh informed him that Bashir Ahmed who was known to the deceased was being prosecuted in an opium case and had requested Jit Singh to arrange for his bail. Jit Singh accordingly took his brother-in-law P. W. Ajaib Singh and P. W. Pal Singh who had given him the information and Gurdev Singh with him to Phul where Bashir Ahmed was to be produced before the Magistrate on July 20, 1970. The party of these persons proceeded by bus from village Bhadaur to Phul. Gurdev Singh was to give surety and perhaps Jit Singh and Pal Singh were to be witnesses if the bail was granted to Bashir Ahmed. As it happened, however, the prayer for bail of Bashir Ahmed was rejected by the Magistrate at Phul who remanded him for another four days. The deceased and his party, therefore, returned disappointed and on their way to Bhadaur they alighted from the bus at Salabatpura at about 2 P. M. It may be noted that there does not appear to have been any direct bus service between Bhadaur and Phul and for any person going from Phul to Bhadaur had to change at Salabatpura for another bus. To resume the narrative of the prosecution case when the deceased and his two companions alighted from the bus they were surrounded by the eight accused persons variously armed, out of whom the appellant Amar Singh pulled the hair of Jit Singh and felled him and thereafter Sarwan Singh who was armed with takwa (axe) gave a blow on his hand. The other accused also assaulted the deceased on various parts of his body with their weapons like gandasas, ghops, lathis etc. The accused persons appear to have got down from a car the moment the complainants' party alighted from the bus which seems to indicate that the accused persons were aware thatthe deceased was bound to get down at Salabatpura in order to catch another bus for Bhadaur and as the accused Sarwan Singh had a liquor vend at Salabatpura he found it convenient to lie in wait in this village in order to attack the deceased. This is what seems to be suggested by the prosecution. The companions of the deceased on seeing the occurrence raised a hue and cry as a result of which the accused fled away and some of whom even tried to chase Gurdev Singh and Pal Singh who concealed themselves and later reached Bhadaur by a side track. Thereafter Ajaib Singh rushed to the police station at Dialpura which is situated at a distance of 21/2 miles from the village Salabatpura and lodged the First Information Report at 3 P. M. narrating the entire occurrence. Soon after recording the F.I.R. the Sub-Inspector along with some of his assistants set out for the place of occurrence for making investigation. During the course of investigation, recoveries of takwa, gandasa and ghop appear to have been made at the instance of some of the accused. After usual investigation, the police submitted a charge-sheet as a resultof which the accused were committed to the Court of Session and tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Barnala as indicated above. We might further mention that although the F.I.R. mentioned the offence under Sections 307/148/149, I.P.C. the offence was converted into that of murder after the death of the deceased. The Sub-Inspector who visited the spot prepared an inquest report and sent the dead body to the Doctor for post mortem. There can be no doubt that the deceased had been assaulted in a most brutal and dastardly manner by the accused as would appear from the number of injuries received by the deceased. According to P. W. 1 Dr. Prem Nath who performed the post mortem examination of the dead body, the following injuries were found on the deceased: "1. Incised wound curved measuring 5" x 1/2" gaping on the right side of scalp in the parietal region. The underlying bone was cut and the brain matter was coming out. The wound went deep for 2". Posterior part of the wound was 1" above the right ear. 2. A Punctured wound with clean cut margins 1/2" x 1/4" x 1 1/2" deep on the outer side of middle of left arm, 4" above the left elbow joint. 3. A contusion 3" x 1/4" on the outer side of middle of right arm. Underlying bone was broken. 4. Contusion 1 1/2" x 1/2" on the outer side of right arm, 2" below injury No. 3. Underlying bone was broken. 5. Punctured wound 1/2" x 1/3" and 1" deep on the outer side of middle of right arm. 1/2" below injury No. 3. 6. Punctured wound with clean cut margins 1/2" x 1/3" and 1" deep on the outer side of lower part of right arm:1" below injury No. 5. 7. Contusion 2" x 1" on the outer side of right fore-arm 4" above the wrist joint. 8. A lacerated wound 1 1/4" x 1/2" on the front of upper part of right leg. 3" below the right knee joint. The underlying bone was broken. 9. Lacerated wound 3/4" x 1/2" bone deep on the front of upper part of right leg 1 1/4" below the right knee joint. 10. Incised wound 3/4" x 1/3" and 1/2" deep on the front of right leg. 2" below injury No. 8( ). 11. Punctured wound with clean cut margins 1/2" x 1/3" and 1" deep on the front of right leg 1/2" below and inner to injury No. 10. 12. Punctured wound 1/2" x 1/3" and 1" deep on the front of lower part of right leg. 1" below injury No. 11. 13. Punctured wound 1/2" x 1/3" and 1/2" deep on the inner part of lower part of right leg. 3" above the right ankle joint. 14. Punctured wound 1/2" x 1/3" x 3/4" deep on the inner part of right leg 1/2" below injury No. 13. 15. Punctured wound 3/4" x 1/2" x 1" deep going laterally on the front of upper part of left leg. 2" below the left knee joint. 16. Contusion 1 1/2" x 1" on the front of left leg. 1" below injury No. 15. Underlying bone was broken. 17. A lacerated wound 1/2" x 1/3" with contusion around about on the middle of front of left leg. The wound was bone deep and the underlying bone was broken. 18. A lacerated wound 1" x 1/3" on the inner part of left leg. 2 1/2" below and inner to injury No. 17. Underlying bone was broken. 19. Incised wound 1/2" x 1/3" and 1/2" deep on the inner side of lower part of left leg. 2 1/2" above the left ankle joint." An analysis of these injuries would show that there were three incised wounds being injuries Nos. 1, 10 and 19, eight punctured wounds being injuries Nos. 2, 5, 6 and 11 to 15, four lacerated wounds being injuries Nos. 8, 9 17 and 18 and four contusions being injuries Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 16. The medical evidence in the present case is a very important piece of evidence because it has been relied upon both by the defence and the prosecution.;