- (1.) These criminal appeals by Special Leave have been filed by the eleven appellants challenging the legality and correctness of the judgment and order dated 11/03/1988 passed by the High court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla affirming their conviction and sentence under S. 201/120-B of the Indian Penal Code passed by the Sessions Judge, Mandi.
(2.) Alongwith the appellants, four others, namely, Mohd. Sardar, Lal Singh, Jiwan Lal and Netar Mani (all police officials) were put up for trial for offences punishable under Sections 302/342/506/201/120-B of the Indian Penal Code and on their convictions for the above offences, were sentenced to suffer life imprisonment under Section 302/12cb Indian Penal Code and for various other terms of sentences in respect of other offences The appellants however were arraigned only for the offence punishable under S. 201/ 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. These appeals are, however, confined to the conviction and sentence of the appellants under Section 201/120-B of the Indian Penal Code for it is common premise that the convictions of the four co-convicts were affirmed by the High court and their Special Leave Petition to this court was dismissed.
(3.) Briefly stated the prosecution case is as under: One Kishan Chand @ Krishnoo (Public witness 10 of village Dadah lodged a report at Balh police station stating that on 7/07/1983, a theft of some currency notes and three gold ornaments had taken place in his house. This report was lodged on 8/07/1983. After registering the crime, Krishnoo went to his village. He suspected Dila Ram (Public witness 16. On 10/07/1983, Lal Singh, police constable accompanied by dome other constables came to the house of Krishnoo who pointed out the suspect Dila Ram and Sher Singh @ Sheru (since deceased). Both of, them were interrogated by Lal Singh. In the meantime, ASI Narbir Singh came there and continued further interrogation. The police party thereafter took Lal Singh and Sheru to the police station Balh on the evening of 10/07/1983. During the investigation, couple of other suspects were also interrogated but without any success. One Basanta Ram was also taken to the police station on 9/07/1983 and was detained there. Therefore, Longu Ram, father of Basanta Ram, approached Sh. Parkash Chand (Public witness 1 in the morning of 11/07/1983 to use His good offices with SI Mohd. Sardar for release of his son. On such intervention, SI Mohd. Sardar agreed to release Basanta and Dila Ram after the swelling On their feet subsided. SI Mohd. Sardar asked Parkash Chand (Public witness 1 to wait in the police station as he would be taken as a witness to the recovery of stolen articles pursuant to the statement under Section 27 of the Evidence Act made by Sheru. They went towards 'nalla' at village Dadah alongwith Sheru but nothing could be 11 recovered. At the instance of SI Mohd. Sardar, at the relevant time, a police van bearing No. 265 was called from police headquarters at Mandi for carrying out the excise raids as it was reported that an illicit distillation was going on at various places. Sheru who was then in the custody of SI Mohd. Sardar made further statement that stolen articles were kept in Dadah 'nalla' and he would recover the same , from there. The police party then came to Dadah 'nalla' in a truck but nothing was recovered therefrom. It is the prosecution case that SI Mohd. Sardar and other police constables used the third degree methods on Sheru causing several injuries to him. On 11/07/1983, police party headed by Mohd. Sardar went to the house of Sheru as he had made a statement that ornaments were kept at his house. After reaching the house of Sheru, his mother Reshmo (Public witness 14, wife Bhuvneshwari (Public witness 11 and other relatives came out of the house and permitted to take the search but nothing was recovered. It is then alleged by the prosecution that the police party thereafter gave merciless beating to Sheru. He was thereafter taken to the police station and detained during the night. On 12/07/1983, Sheru during further interrogation made a statement that he had kept the stolen articles in village Shegli. In pursuance of the said statement, Mohd. Sardar alongwith the police party boarded the mini bus (police van) and went towards village Shegli. Nothing was recovered from the said village. Sheru was again given severe beatings by Mohd. Sardar and other police constables and it appears that during further interrogation Sheru used to make statements as regards stolen article's having been concealed at various places but nothing could be recovered. The last leg of the investigation was a confessional statement which is alleged to have been made by Sheru that he had kept the stolen property under a banana tree at village Biharta. SI Mohd. Sardar alongwith the police party and other police constables who had come from Mandi proceeded towards village Biharta in a police van. The police van then was parked on the road and SI Mohd. Sardar and three other police constables went on foot towards village Biharta. Nothing was recovered from that place. Due to severe beating by the police officials during his detention in the police custody, the health of Sheru deteriorated and, therefore, they decided to take him to the civil dispensary at village Biharta. However, before they reached the civil dispensary, Sheru succumbed to his injuries. Realising the consequences of death of Sheru, SI Mohd. Sardar and other police constables got down from the vehicle and held a discussion to decide the mode of disposal of the dead body. initially they thought of taking the dead body of Sheru to the forest area and burn it there. Accordingly, SI Mohd. Sardar asked Jivan Lal, police constable and Krishnoo to go to Chall Chowk in police van and get two empty gunny bags, one tin and a rope They returned with these articles at dusk time. They all boarded the mini bus (police van) and asked the driver to take it to Sunder Nagar dispensary for post mortem examination. The police van stopped a little away from the petrol pump and thereafter Deepak Raj, Netar Mani, police constables and Krishnoo went with the tin to Chail Chowk and then brought the diesel in the tin and petrol in one bottle from the said petrol pump. SI Mohd. Sardar asked the driver to take the vehicle to Nilaspur 12 They thereafter moved on Jukhala Brampukhar road and after covering a distance of 3/4 kms. , the police van was stopped. The dead body was taken out of the van at some distance and after sprinkling diesel over the dead body, it was set on fire. It was then realised that some residential houses were in the nearby locality and the flames would attract their attention. Immediately they extinguished the fire, put the dead body into the gunny bag and tied it with a rope and brought back and kept in the police van. They thereafter proceeded towards Sleeper bridge and threw the dead body into the Sutlej river. They took every care to see that the dead body disappeared in the flow of the water of the river. On 13/07/1983 at about 4. 00 a. m. , they all returned to the police station, Balh. It is alleged by the prosecution that Mohd Sardar warned Parkash Chand (Public witness 1, Bihari Lal (Public witness 2 and Krishnoo (Public witness 10 not to disclose the incident to anybody. If any query is made by any of the relatives of Sheru, he be told that he had absconded from the police custody. Parkash Chand, Bihari Lal and Krishnoo however did not accept the advice of Mohd. Sardar. They went to one Jai Singh, a member of Panchayat and told him about the incident. They then contacted Tulsi Ram (Public witness 13, the Up Pradhan who advised them to go and inform about the incident to Sh. B. C. Negi (Public Witness 20, Superintendent of Police, Mandi. Accordingly, Superintendent of Police, Mandi was contacted and he was told about the incident. S. P. , Mandi alongwith other police officials went to police station Balh and lodged the report at the instance of Parkash Chand. After completing the investigation, a charge sheet came to be filed against the four co-convicts and the appellants for the offences mentioned here in above.;