T.P.S.MANN, J. - (1.) This judgment would dispose of Criminal Appeal No. 773-DB of 2003, prefered by Raj Kumar @ Raja and Raj Pal Criminal Appeal No. 850-DB of 2003, preferred by Raj Pal and Criminal Appeal No. JOi-DB of 2005, preferred by Virender Kumar. Although Raj Pal along with Raj Kumar @ Raja filed the first appeal through their counsel Mr. Deepak Gupta on 8-10-2003 and the same was admitted on 9-10-2003. yet he i.e. Raj Pal sent another appeal against his conviction and sentence through iaii on 24 if) 2003. The same i.e. Criminal" Appeal No. 850-DB of 2003 was admitted on 22-1-2004. Along with the aforementioned three convicts i.e. Raj Kumar @ Raja, Raj Pal and Virender Kumar, one more, namely, Om Prakash was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jagadhri. However, on 26-11-2002 when the case was fixed before the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jagadhri for recording prosecution evidence, it was reported by the Superintendent, District Jail, Ambala that Om Prakash had died. In view of the said report, learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jagadhri dropped the proceedings against accused Om Prakash as having abated.
(2.) The facts giving rise to the present case are that on 21-3-1998 Sunil Kumar son of Babu PW 16 of Jaswant Colony, Yamuna Nagar submitted an application to Superintendent of Police, Behat, Saharanpur, wherein he stated that he owned one Maruti van No. MBO, 334, which was of Coca Cola colour and was 1995 model. The same had been hired by four persons from bus stand, Yamuna Nagar for Shakumbhri Devi on 19-3-1998 at about 3.00 p.m. The vehicle was driven by Jagmal Singh son of Dhani Ram of village Daulatpur, PS Chhappar, Distt. Yamuna Nagar, Jagmal Singh was to return on the same night. However, when Jagmal Singh did not return till the next morning, he became worried and started searching for his vehicle, but to no avail. On 21-3-1998, when said Anil Kumar along with Madan Lal brother of Jagmal Singh were going towards Shakumbhri Devi in search of the vehicle, they came to know that a dead body of a person was lying on the side of the road between villages Tejpura and Matki. On getting the said information, all of them reached the spot and saw that the dead body was of driver Jagmal Singh. According to him, the four persons, who had hired the vehicle from Yamuna Nagar to proceed to Shakumbhri Devi killed the driver so as to usurp the vehicle. After killing Jagmal Singh driver, his dead body had been thrown on the side of the road and vehicle taken away by those four persons. In this respect information was also conveyed at Police Station, Yamuna Nagar about the incident. Anil Kumar further claimed that his brother Sunil and other persons could identify those four culprits as they had seen them at bus stand, Yamuna Nagar.
(3.) On the basis of aforementioned ap- plication, FIR No. 131 of 1998 was registered at Police Station Behat, Saharanpur under Sections 392/302/34 of the Indian Penal Code. After recording of the FIR, Rajbir Singh SHO, Police Station Behat accompanied by Jai Vir Singh SI PW 20 and other police officials reached the spot and recorded the statement of Anil Kumar PW 16. Inquest report Ex. PT was prepared. The dead body of Jagmal Singh was sent to District Hospital, Saharanpur where post mortem on the dead body was conducted by Dr. R. P. Gupta PW5.;