- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upholding the conviction of the appellants for conviction punishable under Section 302 for appellant no.1 and Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC') for appellant no.2 while directing acquittal of co-accused Parminder Singh. Four persons faced trial. The learned Sessions Judge Gurdaspur directed acquittal of Lakhbir Singh, while holding the present appellants and Parminder Singh to be guilty of offence punishable under Section 302 and Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC as noted above. By the impugned judgment the High Court as noted above directed acquittal of the co-accused while confirming the conviction and sentence so far as the appellants are concerned.
(3.) Prosecution versions as unfolded during trial is as follows: On 5.10.1999 Bur Singh had given beatings to the son of Manjit Singh for passing through their fields to which Surjan Singh had objected, therefore, the accused were annoyed and challenged to teach him a lesson. On 6.10.1999 at about 6 AM Sukhraj Singh (hereinafter referred to as the 'complainant') along with his father Surjan Singh was going towards his well to milch the cattle. Surjan Singh was ahead of complainant. When they came near the field of Hazara Singh, the accused came there. Bur Singh raised lalkara that they be caught and taught a lesson for showing sympathy with the police. Kulwinder Singh accused inflicted datar blow on the right arm of Surjan Singh, Bur Singh inflicted sua blow on his right temporal region, and, resultantly, he fell down. Thereafter Parminder Singh accused inflicted dang blow to him on his shoulders. Thus, all the accused inflicted several blows to him with the respective weapons. The hue and cry raised by Sukhraj Singh attracted Jasbir Singh and Kulbir Singh to the spot. At this, the accused fled away with their respective weapons. Surjan Singh succumbed to the injuries at the spot. After leaving Jasbir Singh and Kulbir Singh near the dead body, the complainant went to the police station, but ASI Lakhbir Singh met him at Aliwal Chowk to whom he got recorded his statement Ex.PD, which was completed at 7.30 AM on the basis of which FIR Ex. PD/2 was registered at 8.30 AM. The distance of police station Sadar, Batala is 4Kms. from the place of occurrence. The FIR was received by the illaqa Magistrate at 9 A.M. ASI Lakhbir Singh visited the place of occurrence; prepared the rough site plan; lifted blood stained earth from the spot; took into possession one shoe of plastic; got conducted postmortem examination the dead body of the deceased; and took the clothes of the deceased into possession. Accused Bur Singh was arrested on 11.10.1999 and he got recovered dang fitted with sua under the chaff in his residential house and Kulwinder Singh accused got recovered datar from underneath the heap of chaff lying in his verandah in pursuance of their disclosure statements under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (in short the 'Evidence Act'). On 28.10.1999, Parminder Singh accused was arrested by Inspector Lakhbir Singh CIA staff, Batala. Completion of the investigation was followed by a report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'Code'). In order to substantiate the accusations twelve witnesses were examined. PWs 2&3 were stated to be eye witnesses. The accused persons abjured guilt as noted above and in the examination under Section 313 of the Code stated that they had been falsely implicated. Acquitted accused Parminder Singh stated that he was staying at the different State and was not present at the date. Four witnesses were examined to further the defence version about false implication. The trial Court found the evidence of PWs 2 & 3 to be cogent and credible and recorded conviction. In appeal, High Court upheld their conviction.;