- (1.) THE three appellants and one Jai Singh were tried for offence under the Indian Penal Code and Indian Arms Act by the Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Sri Ganganagar. As a result of the trial, Sadhu Singh was convicted under sec. 302 I. P. C. and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was however acquitted of the charge under sec. 27 Indian Arms Act. Sohan Singh and Hanuman were acquitted for charge under sec. 302 I. P. G. but each one of them was convicted under sec. 25, Indian Arms Act and sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment. Jai Singh was acquitted of all the charges levelled against him. THE three convicts have filed appeal No. 704/71 seeking their acquittal. THE State of Rajasthan has also preferred a revision application praying for the award of extreme penalty of death to Sadhu Singh.
(2.) THE prosecution evidence disclosed that Sher Singh (P. W. 11) resident of village Guda Beeruwala Tehsil Sirsa District Hissar had two murrabbas of land in village Nethrana, Tehsil Bhadra, Rajasthan. With a view to help him in the cultivation of the said land he took one Tulsi as his partner to cultivate with him. After sometime Tulsi started claiming the land as his own. Some how. he got the land from him and at the advice of Jaisingh accused, who was distantly related to Sher Singh, finally accepted Sadhu Singh as his partner. Jai Singh even suggested to Sher Singh to adopt Sadhu Singh, as he was a bachelor and ostensibly there was none to succeed him. Sher Singh had only one widow sister Daya Kaur (P. W. 1 ). Sher Singh did not accept this suggestion but all the same Sadhu Singh started living with him. After sometime Sadhu Singh also betrayed his trust and claimed the land of Sher Singh as his own. THEn followed a litigation between Sher Singh and Sadhu Singh. Sher Singh appointed Bakshishsingh as his general power of attorney holder to appear in the litigation on his behalf. It was in the course of this litigation. Tehsildar Bhadra was appointed Receiver to manage the land of Sher Singh. In his capacity as the Receiver Shri Shantulal, Tehsildar Bhadra, went to village Nethrana on 25-8-70 to auction the land, perhaps as a part of managing the same. Bakshish Singh with Mithoo Singh (who was Bakshishsingh's wife's brother), and Basant Singh son of Daya Kaur (Sher Singh's sister) also decided to go to village Nethrana on 25-1970 to offer bid at the auction. For that purpose they engaged the jeep No. RJK-1941 of Mamdin (P. W. 3), who took the three persons namely Bakshish Singh, Mithoo Singh, Basantsingh by his jeep to the village but on the way when they were only two miles from Nethrana the engine of the vehicle failed and it got stuck up. While the Tehsildar and his reader Shri Shermal were busy in auctioning the land it village Nethrana, they were informed that there were some gun fires and some murders had taken place. The Tehsildar, after having disposed of the job on hand started from the village and on their way found the jeep RJK 1941 standing on the road. They also noticed two dead bodies near about the Jeep. Some 50 pavandas ahead they also found one another dead body. The Tehsildar then wrote out the report Ex. P/l and gave it to his reader Shermal (P. W. 2) to deliver the same at the police station Bhadra. Shermal (P. W. 2) on his part lodged the report at the police station and on that basis Shri Gajanand A. S. I. (P. W. 5) of the Police Station Bhadra recorded the first information report as Ex. P/2. Since the S. H. O. was on leave, he informed Shri Manoharlal Circle Officer (P. W. 15) about the incident. In the meanwhile Shri Gajanand went to the place of occurrence and placed a guard to look after the site and the dead bodies Shri Manoharlal reached the place of occurrence next morning that is, on 26-8-1970 and took charge of the investigation. He prepared the site plan, the 'fard surtehal' and the inquest report. He took in his custody the three dead bodies and sent them to Bhadra Hospital for post-mortem examination. He recovered certain articles including six empty cartridge cases and one misfired cartridge. The three dead bodies were photographed and kept for identification. They were identified to be those of Bakshish Singh, Mithoo Singh and Basant Singh. Dr. Gopal Dass (P. W. 7) conducted the autopsy of Bakshish Singh in the mortuary of Bhadra hospital, and found that the deceased Bakshish Singh had one gun shot wound in the abdomen and an incised wound 1" x 1/10" x muscle deep on the right side of the fore-head. According to the doctor these injuries were ante-mortem and the cause of death was injury by the gun-shot which was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death. The post-mortem examination of Basant Singh by the doctor disclosed that the deceased had two gun shots; one in the abdomen and the other on the left side of the head. On account of which all the bones of skull were fractured. These injuries were ante-mortem and reported to be responsible for the death of Basant Singh. Dr. Gopal Dass recovered 50 small gun shot pellets from the head and 43 small pellets from the wound in the abdomen.
(3.) THE result of the third autopsy on the dead body of Mithoo Singh, was, that the doctor found the following injuries: Two incised wounds; one 2" x 1" bone deep left hand dorsal aspect cutting through meta-carpo-phalyngeal joints of the middle and index fingers, and the other was 2' x 2-1/2" x muscle deep right fore-arm about its middle THE third injury was a gun shot wound with multiple small shots spread out in front of the right chest upper part front of right shoulder right side of the neck about 8", in radius spread from the middle of the clavicle. THEse injuries were also ante mortem in nature and the cause of death was reported to be the gun shot injury. 22 small gun pellets were recovered from this wound. THE two incised injuries were caused by sharp edged weapon. Shri Amar Singh (P. W. 14) S. H. O. Bhadra joined his duty on 28-8-1970 and he was entrusted with the investigation of the case. Sadhu Singh, Jai Singh and Hanuman were arrested on 9-9-1970. Sohan Singh was arrested on 15 10-70. This investigating Officer recovered 12 bore single barrel gun No. 12039 at the instance of accused Sadhu Singh vide Ex. P/38 on 19-9-1970 Similarly another gun was recovered from the possession of Hanuman vide Ex. P/39 at his instance It is alleged that Sohan Singh also informed the S. H. O. and got recovered a gun vide Ex. P/47 on 25-10-1970. After having completed the investigation Jai Singh and the three accused appellants were charge-sheeted in the court of Munsiff Magistrate, Bhadra, who did the committal proceedings and sent them to be tried in the court of session. They were tried by the Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Sri Ganganagar. All the accused pleaded not guilty, and also claimed to be innocent in the matter. On behalf of the prosecution 16 witnesses were examined, but none was produced in defence. Before the trial Judge the prosecution placed reliance on the extra judicial confession said to have been made by Sadhu Singh to Baltej Singh (P. W. 6 ). The learned Judge did not think it safe to rely on this evidence. Another piece of evidence relied upon was the recovery of 12 bore gun from the possession of Sadhu Singh and the recovery of the six empty cartridge cases from the scene of occurrence by Manohar Lal (P. W. 15 ). The statement of Shri S. M. Chatterjee (P. W. 12) a ballistic expert was also pressed into" service for connecting the empties with the gun recovered from the possession of Sadhu Singh. It was urged on behalf of the prosecution that the six empties were discharged from the gun of Sadhu Singh (Art. 1 ). The learned Judge accepted this evidence to connect Sadhu Singh with the crime. The recovery of the guns from the possession of Hanuman and Sohan Singh were held to be not sufficient to connect them with the crime of murder. Eventually the learned Judge convicted Sadhu Singh under sec, 302 I. P. C. for committing the triple murder of Bakshish Singh Basant Singh and Mithoo Singh. Hanuman and Sohan Singh were however acquitted of the charge of murder. There was no evidence against Jai Singh to connect him in any manner with the crime, he was also acquitted. Having accepted the recovery of two guns from the possession of Hanuman and Sohan Singh, which were found to be, according to the learned Judge, as not licenced, he convicted each one of them under sec. 25 of the Indian Arms Act. The 12 bore gun found to be in possession of Sadhu Singh was licenced and as such he was acquitted of the charge under sec. 27 of the Indian Arms Act. ;