- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the appeal filed by the accused-appellants. Three accused persons faced trial for alleged commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC') for causing homicidal death of Jagbir (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased'). They were convicted by Additional Sessions Judge (First), Bhiwani, Haryana and each was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/- with default stipulation.
(3.) Prosecution version sans unnecessary details is as follows: The accused and the deceased are residents of village Dhanana. Mst. Bhulan had a son, namely, Jagbir, the deceased, and a daughter, namely, Krishna. Both were married. On account of floods in the village, 15 days prior to the occurrence, Prem, wife of Jagbir had gone to her parental house. Due to floods in the streets of the village, Mst. Bhulan the complainant used to tether her cattle near Dharmashala Brahmchari Ashram and Jagbir used to sleep near the cattle. On 24.9.1995, at about 9/9.30 P.M., after taking meals, as usual Jagbir went to the sitting room of accused Silak Ram son of Ram Bhagat where Narotam alias Raja, Silak Ram and Bijender alias Binder i.e. all the three accused were present. During conversation Jagbir told one Narender who was present there that Bijender Singh alias Binder was a cheap person and he could commit crime at any time. Narotam had also quarreled with Jagbir 15-20 days prior to the occurrence over the turmoil created by buffalo of the former. There was exchange of hot words between them and Jagbir, which attracted Mst. Bhulan. She intervened and brought her son back to the house and directed him to sleep aside the cattle. Mst. Bhulan in her statement further submitted that during night when she woke up to urinate, she heard cries of her son and, therefore, she ran towards Brahmchari Ashram where her son was sleeping. Chater Singh (her husband's brother) and his son Ved Parkash also ran towards that side. They saw in the light of Brahmchari Ashram that accused Narotam alias Raja armed with gandasi, Bijjender alias Binder armed with 'phali' and Silak Ram armed with lathi were causing injuries to Jagbir. In their presence, Narotam alias Raja gave gandasi blow on the right temporal region of Jasbir, Bijender alias Binder gave phali blow on the right side of his chest and Silak Ram also gave lathi blow to him. On seeing the witnesses, the accused ran away from the spot. When they reached near Jagbir, then they saw that he had breathed his last. Due to the flood water in the village and in the surrounding areas of the village and also on account of fear, they could not go to the Police Station immediately. Ultimately, when they were going to lodge the report, ASI Nar Singh met Mst. Bhulan at the crossing of village Mandhal where she got recorded her statement (Ex. P.A.) which was completed at 9.40 A.M. on 25.9.1995, on the basis of which FIR was recorded at the Police Station, Bhiwani Khera, on the same day at 11.00 A.M. Special report was sent by SI Darshan Lal through Constable Devinder Kumar No.579 to the Illaqa Magistrate which was received by him on the same day at 7.00 P.M. The distance between the place of occurance and the police station is 21 Kms. After sending ruqa, SI Darshan Lal proceeded for the village, got the dead body photographed, prepared inquest report, lifted bloodstained earth, a pair of chappel and some pieces of rori on which he had noticed blood. He also took into possession string of cot stained with human blood. He also took into possession bloodstains from thresher, trolley and took the same into possession vide different memos. He also prepared rough site plan of the place of occurrence and recorded statement of the witnesses. He also got conducted autopsy on the dead body of Jagbir. On 30.5.1995, he arrested the accused from the bus stand of village Dhanana. He got recovered the lathi, shirt-pajjama from the room of a house in pursuance of the disclosure statement made by the accused Silak Ram. Similarly, in pursuance of the disclosure statement made by accused Bijender alias Binder, he got recovered phalli, the weapon of offence and the clothes from the different places and took the same into possession. He also got recovered gandasi under a heap of dung from some inhabited place, shirt and pajama from different places in pursuance to the disclosure statement made by Narotam and took the same into possession through different parcels.;