KAMAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present revision are directed against the judgment dtd. 14/7/2009 and order of sentence dtd. 16/7/2009 passed by learned Sessions Judge, Una (learned Appellate Court) vide which the appeals filed by the respondent/State were allowed and judgment dtd. 29/9/2007 passed by learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Court No.1, Una (learned Trial Court) was set aside, accused-Kamal Singh and Kuldeep Singh were convicted of the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 326 and 341 read with Sec. 34 of Indian Penal Code (in short 'IPC') and accused-Bhagat Ram and accused-Rakesh Kumar were convicted of the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 341 of IPC and the order dtd. 16/7/2009, vide which accused Kamal Singh and Kuldeep Singh were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and pay a fine of ?10,000/- each and in default of payment of fine to further undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months each for the commission of offence punishable under Sec. 326 read with Sec. 34 of IPC and to pay a fine of ?500/- each for the commission of offence punishable under Sec. 341 of IPC and accused No.1-Bhagat Ram and accused No.3-Rakesh Kumar were also sentenced to pay a fine of ?500/-each for the commission of an offence punishable under Sec. 341 of IPC and in default of payment of fine to further undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one month each. (The parties shall hereinafter referred to in the same manner as they were arrayed before the learned Trial Court for convenience).

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present revisions are that the police presented a challan before the learned Trial Court for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 324, 341, 506 and 34 of IPC. It was asserted that informant-Satish Kumar (PW1) is a resident of village Haroli. His father had purchased a tractor bearing registration No.PNH-7572 for him, which was being driven by him. Accused Bhagat Ram is related to him as his uncle. The land of the informant and Bhagat Ram are located adjacent to each other. Bhagat Ram has encroached upon the Government's land near the informant's land. The informant had parked his tractor at his home. The informant was told by Hans Raj to transport the cow dung from his house to his land. Informant-Satish Kumar was driving through the Government land near the land of Bhagat Ram on 27/9/1997 at about 6:15 pm. Bhagat Ram and his sons Kuldeep, Kamal and Rakesh Kumar were standing on the road. They started abusing the informant and threatened to kill him. They said that they would not allow his tractor to go through the land. The informant replied that it was a common passage and that he had taken a tractor through the government land earlier. Kamal Singh and Kuldeep Singh were armed with pick-axes (Ext. P11 and Ext. P12). They hit the informant on his head. Rakesh Kumar and Bhagat Ram gave beatings to the informant with kicks and fist blows. The informant shouted for help, on which his father Kishan Singh (PW2) and his mother Maya Devi reached the spot and rescued him. He reported the matter to the police. An entry (Ext. PW1/A) was recorded in the Police Station in the daily diary. An application (Ext. PW8/B) was filed for the medical examination of the victim. Dr. G.S. Dhindra (PW9) conducted the medical examination of Satish Kumar and found that he had sustained bleeding injuries. He advised X-ray. The injuries could have been caused by a sharp-edged weapon. He issued the MLC (Ext. PW9/A). The casualty Medical Officer mentioned that the nature of the injury was grievous. The investigation was conducted by Onkar Singh (PW8), who seized the blood-stained parna of the injured vide memo (Ext. PW1/D). He visited the spot and prepared the site plan (Ext. PW8/C). Kishan Chand produced the blood-stained clothes which were worn by the informant at the time of the incident. These were put in a cloth parcel and the parcel was sealed with seal 'A". These were seized vide memo (Ext. PW1/B). Blood-stained stone and the leaves were recovered from the spot vide memo (Ext. PW1/C). The pick axes were seized vide memo (Ext. PW1/E). The sketches of the pick axe (Ext. PW8/D and Ext. PW8/E) were prepared. These were put in a cloth parcel and the parcel was sealed with seal 'A". The case property was deposited with Ramesh Chand (PW6) who deposited them in Malkhana and handed them over to Baldev Raj (PW7) with a direction to carry them to FSL Junga for analysis. The result of the analysis (Ext. PW8/F) was issued, in which it was shown that the parna, T-shirt, undervest and shirt had human blood but it was not sufficient for its classification. The blood-stained stone, leaves and pick axes had the human blood of the group 'AB". The statements of the witnesses were recorded as per their version and after the completion of the investigation, the challan was prepared and it was presented before the Court.

(3.) The learned Trial Court charged the accused with the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 326, 341, 324, and 506 read with Sec. 34 of IPC. The accused pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.