DINESH MAHESHWARI,J. - (1.) These two appeals by special leave are directed against the common judgment and order dated 11.03.2008, as passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal Nos. 373 DB of 2005 and 350 DB of 2005 with other connected matters whereby, the High Court has upheld the judgment and order dated 28/30.03.2005 by the Sessions Judge, Barnala in Sessions Case No. 21 of 2001, convicting and sentencing the accused-appellants for multiple offences, including those punishable under Sections 148, 302/149, 323, 324 and 326/149 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC').
(2.) Put in brief, the relevant background aspects of the matter are as follows: 2.1. The prosecution case has been that on 03.03.2001, the deceased Dalip Singh, Rajinder Pal Singh (PW-5), Gurnam Singh (PW-6) and the complainant Beant Singh [The complainant Beant Singh was examined as the first witness in the trial but he expired before completion of his statement], all residents of Village Mehal Kalan had gone to Barnala Court Complex in connection with the hearing in a criminal case pertaining to FIR No. 67 of 1997, Police Station Mehal Kalan, that was adjourned. That very day, the accused persons Manjit Singh [The appellant of Cr. A. No. 1079 of 2011], Labh Singh, Avtar Singh, Bakhtaur Singh, Sukhwinder Singh [The appellant of Cr. A. No. 1076 of 2011], Prem Kumar, and Narain Datt, had also been to the same Court Complex to attend the proceedings in a complaint case of the appellant Manjit Singh, that was also adjourned. At about 11.15 a.m., when Gurnam Singh, Beant Singh, Rajinder Pal Singh and Dalip Singh were about to board their car near the cabin of typists in the Court Complex, they were attacked by the accused persons. 2.2. It was alleged that for carrying out the assault in question, five of the accused persons carried different weapons, where the appellant Sukhwinder Singh as also Labh Singh and Avtar Singh were armed with kirpans; Bakhtaur Singh was armed with kirpan and ghop; and the appellant Manjit Singh was armed with kirch whereas Prem Kumar and Narain Datt were empty handed. According to the allegations, with exhortation by the appellant Manjit Singh, the accused persons carried out the assault in the manner that Labh Singh gave kirpan blow aiming at the head of Beant Singh, who raised his hands and the blow hit his right hand; the appellant Sukhwinder Singh aimed his kirpan blow on the head of Dalip Singh but since he raised his hands, the blow hit his right hand; Bakhtaur Singh gave a blow of ghop on the head of Dalip Singh; Prem Kumar and Narain Datt caught hold of the arms of Dalip Singh and Bakhtaur Singh gave another ghop blow on the head of Dalip Singh; Avtar Singh gave a blow of his kirpan on the left leg of Gurnam Singh; Bakhtaur Singh also gave three blows of ghop on the left cheek, back of the chest and left thigh of Gurnam Singh; the appellant Manjit Singh gave the blows of his kirch, hitting Rajinder Pal Singh on the right hand and on the left hand thumb; and the appellant Sukhwinder Singh hit Gurnam Singh on the back by the handle of his kirpan. 2.3. It was further alleged that upon such an assault, the injured raised alarm whereupon, Amarjit Singh, Balbir Singh, Jit Singh and Gurdeep Singh reached the spot. The injured were taken to the hospital. Upon receiving a message from the hospital, Surinder Pal Singh (PW-9), SHO, P.S. Kotwali went to the hospital and sought the opinion of doctor about fitness of the injured for taking their statements; the injured Beant Singh was declared fit and his statement was recorded at 2.30 p.m., which led to the registration of FIR No. 56 of 2001 for the offences punishable under Sections 307, 148, 149, 120-B IPC. The statements of the injured Rajinder Pal Singh and Gurnam Singh were also recorded. However, the injured Dalip Singh was not found fit for making any statement; he was referred to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala; and he was, thereafter, shifted to Dayanand College and Hospital, Ludhiana. He remained hospitalised until 12.03.2001 but the attempts by ASI Gulab Singh (PW-11) to record his statement did not materialise. The injured Dalip Singh, ultimately, expired on 12.03.2001 at 4.30 p.m.; the post mortem of his dead body was conducted on 13.03.2001 at Civil Hospital, Ludhiana. In sequel, the offence punishable under Section 302 was added to the FIR. 2.4. On 08.03.2001, the accused persons Bakhtaur Singh, Labh Singh and Avtar Singh were arrested. The weapon ghop was recovered in pursuance of the disclosure statement of Bakhtaur Singh whereas one kirpan was recovered on the disclosure statement of Labh Singh and another kirpan was recovered on the disclosure statement of Avtar Singh. On 14.03.2001, the appellant Sukhwinder Singh was arrested and in pursuance of his disclosure statement, yet another kirpan was recovered. 2.5. In the course of investigation, the soil splattered with blood was collected from the place of occurrence; site plan was prepared; and statements of other witnesses were recorded. As per the FSL report, the ghop, three kirpans and soil recovered from the place of occurrence were found to be stained with human blood. 2.6. On 24.03.2001, while the other accused persons were charge-sheeted for various offences but, the present appellant Manjit Singh as also Prem Kumar and Narain Datt were allegedly found not involved in the crime and they were kept in column No.2 by the Investigating Officer ('IO'). After committal of the case to the Sessions Court and after framing of charges, the complainant Beant Singh was examined as the first witness of the prosecution on 11.09.2001 but his deposition remained incomplete. This very day, the complainant Beant Singh moved an application under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ('CrPC') for proceeding against the appellant Manjit Singh as also against the said Prem Kumar and Narain Datt, who were summoned by the Trial Court by its order dated 19.09.2001. Thereafter, charges were framed against all the accused persons, inter alia, for the offences under Sections 302, 148, 326, 325, 323 IPC. The prosecution sought leave under Section 321 CrPC to withdraw the case against the appellant Manjit Singh and the said Prem Kumar and Narain Datt but this prayer was declined by the Trial Court by its order dated 09.11.2002 against which, Cr.R. No. 2413 of 2002 and C.M. No. 2248 of 2002 were filed before the High Court that were also dismissed by the order dated 14.10.2003. Further, the petition for Special Leave to Appeal No. 5740 of 2003 filed in this Court was also dismissed by the order dated 17.01.2004.
(3.) In the trial, the prosecution examined several witnesses, including the injured eye-witnesses Rajinder Pal Singh as PW-5 and Gurnam Singh as PW-6; the medical officer Dr. Subhash Singla, who had initially examined the injured persons and had prepared the injury reports, as PW-1; and Dr. Jasbir Singh, who had conducted post-mortem on the dead body of Dalip Singh, as PW-7. 3.1. The eye-witnesses, Rajinder Pal Singh and Gurnam Singh, PW-5 and PW-6 respectively, gave the ocular account of the entire incident. PW-5 Rajinder Pal Singh categorically stated that the assault commenced when the appellant Manjit Singh instigated the other accused persons to attack the complainant and his companions. This witness provided a detailed description of participation and involvement of each of the accused in conformity with the version occurring in the FIR. His testimony was corroborated on all the material particulars by PW-6 Gurnam Singh. As noticed, the testimony of the informant Beant Singh remained incomplete due to his demise. 3.2. The appellant Manjit Singh, while denying the allegations in his statement under Section 313 CrPC, gave a purportedly detailed account that the complainants were annoyed with Prem Kumar, Narain Datt and himself for the reason that they had given evidence in the case of rape and murder of a co-village girl KK* [The name of the said victim girl is not required to be mentioned and she is referred as KK* herein.], where the offence was allegedly committed by the relatives of the complainant and the injured witnesses. We shall refer to the relevant part of the statement made by the appellant Manjit Singh under Section 313 CrPC hereafter a little later. 3.3. In defence evidence, the accused persons got examined as many as 13 witnesses. These had been as follows: DW-1 Dr. A.K. Singla, the handwriting and fingerprint expert in relation to the signatures of Rajinder Pal Singh on the court summons and jail records; DW-2, Head Constable Jaswinder Singh in relation to the fact that DW-3 was deployed as driver of the vehicle in which the undertrials were brought to the Court Complex; DW-3 Head Constable Jora Singh, as the alleged eye-witness to the incident; DW-4 Gurcharan Singh Dhaliwal, Advocate who was allegedly present near the scene of crime; DW-5 Lakhwinder Singh, the then Superintendent of Police (D) at Barnala; DW-6 Constable Amarjit Singh, another alleged eye-witness who had intervened in the fight that had occurred between the two groups; DW-7 Head Constable Gurcharan Singh; DW-8 J.N. Sharma, Advocate; DW-9 Kulwant Singh, Member Panchayat of Village Dhaner; DW-10 Manjit Singh, teacher in Govt. High School, Wazidke Khurd; DW-11 Rajinder Kumar ALM, PSEB Mehar Kalan; DW-12 Darshan Kumar, Head Warden, Sub-Jail, Barnala; and DW-13 Santokh Singh, Maths Teacher in Govt. High School, Wazidke Khurd. ;