SOHAN Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are directed against the judgment and order of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana made in Criminal Appeal No. 454-DB of 1985.

(2.) These appellants were accused Nos. 1 to 6 before the Sessions Court. A-1 is the father of A-2, A-3 is the father of A-4 to A-6. A-1 and A-3 are brothers by birth.

(3.) The prosecution case as unfolded by PW 7 at the trial is that on 11-2-1985 the deceased Daya Nand and PW 7 Hoshiar Singh had started from their village in order to reach Bhiwani to attend Court hearing in the appeal. When they were at the outskirts of the village, the six accused emerged from behind stones. Randhir (A-2) and Kartar (A-5) were armed with pharsis and rest of them with lathis. They surrounded the deceased and PW 7 saying "In Ko Aaj Yahin zamin dai do aur khata kar do". Looking to the danger, the deceased and PW 7 ran into the nearby house of Nanak, the door of which was open. The accused chased them. PW 7 ran ahead deeper into the house and reached a point where there is a Neem tree and which is at higher level. He looked back and saw Daya Nand had scaled a dauli (a small wall). He was overtaken by Randhir who had also jumped over the dauli. Randhir gave a pharsi blow on Daya Nand. At that stage, accused Partap reached there and he also gave three lathi blows to Daya Nand in the back. Sohan, Ramanand and Rajinder also arrived there and each of them gave one lathi blow to Daya Nand. Sumer, son of Nanak, the owner of the house having come out of the house also saw this occurrence. After dealing with Daya Nand, the accused proceeded to chase PW 7 but he ran away to his house. After reaching home, he narrated, as to what happened, to his brother Dani Ram and cousin Tara Chand who were sitting at the entrance of the house and brought them to the spot of occurrence. They found Daya Nand lying unconscious and the accused had run away. They took Daya Nand to his house. From there, they brought him to Primary Health Centre at Gopi at about 8.00 or 8.15 a.m.