Punjab-Haryana High Court
Gurjant Singh And Others vs State Of Punjab And Others on 11 August, 2008
Author: K.S.Garewal
Bench: K.S.Garewal, Sabina
Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH
Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001
Date of decision: August 11, 2008
Gurjant Singh and others ...Appellants
Versus
State of Punjab and others ...Respondent.
CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.S.GAREWAL
HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE SABINA
Present: Mr. K.L. Chaudhary, Advocate,
for the appellants.
Ms. Gurveen Singh, Additional Advocate General, Punjab.
K.S.GAREWAL, J.
Gurjant Singh @ Janta, Sahib Singh, Satnam Singh @ Sammu and Karam Singh of Mudki, District Ferozepur, were tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar, for the murder of Bohar Singh. The deceased had been done to death on December 27, 1996 at 6.30 A.M. at Sakattra, Police Station Khem Karan, District Tarn Taran. The dead body had two incised wound on the left side of the neck, two incised would on the left side of the head, an incised wound on the forehead, and an incised wound on the angle of the left eye extending towards the left ear. The death was instantaneous. The learned Trial Judge found Gurjant Singh, Sahib Singh and Satnam Singh guilty of murder and convicted them under Section 302/34 IPC, vide judgment dated December 4, 2000 and all of them were sentenced to imprisonment for life and also to pay fine of Rs. 10,000/- Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 2 each. On realization of the fine, Rs. 20,000/- was to be paid to the father and widow of the deceased Bohar Singh, in default of payment the convicts were to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. However, Karam Singh was acquitted as there was no evidence against him and even recording of statement without oath under Section 313 Cr.P.C. was dispensed with as regard Karam Singh.
The case of the prosecution was that on the morning of December 27, 1996 at 6.30 A.M., Bohar Singh deceased had left the house to answer the call of nature. He had gone towards a drain. After sometime, Bohar Singh's father Gurcharan Singh and his cousin Kikkar Singh also followed him for the same purpose. Kikkar Singh had sat down a little ahead of the left side of the bridge of the drain while Gurcharan Singh was near the bridge when he saw Gurjant Singh, Sahib Singh and Satnam Singh, all armed with kirpans. They went to Bohar Singh deceased and attacked him with their respective kirpans. The occurrence was witnessed by Gurcharan Singh and Kikkar Singh who raised alarm but when Sahib Singh threatened them they became frightened and hid themselves. After striking the deceased the assailants looked for Gurcharan Singh but soon left the place. Thereafter, Gurcharan Singh and Kikkar Singh went over and saw that Bohar Singh had received injuries on his head and was lying dead on the spot. Chanan Singh, a Lambardar, also reached the spot. Gurcharan Singh left Kikkar Singh and Chanan Singh at the spot for protection of the dead body and went to the police to report the matter.
According to Gurcharan Singh, Ghanatter Singh, father of the accused had been murdered in 1990. The accused suspected that Ghanatter Singh had been killed by Gurcharan Singh's son Pippal Singh. Later Pippal Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 3 Singh was killed in a police encounter. Thus Sammu @ Satnam Singh had taken revenge by murdering Pippal Singh's brother Bohar Singh.
Gurcharan Singh's statement was recorded by SI Gopal Chand, Police Station, Khem Karan, at 11.30 AM near the Khem Karan bus stand. On the basis of this statement, FIR was registered at Police Station, Khem Karan, at 11.50 AM its Special report was delivered to the Magistrate at 2.30 PM.
The investigation was commenced by the Investigating Officer SI Gopal Chand who reached the spot alongwith Gurcharan Singh and prepared the inquest report of the dead body of Bohar Singh. SI collected a parna from the spot. Blood stained earth was also taken into possession. He prepared a rough site plan of the site of occurrence and recorded the statements of the witnesses. Thereafter he searched for the accused but could not find them.
The post mortem on the dead body of the deceased was conducted by Dr. Sham Lal Gupta, CMO, Civil Hospital, Patti, on the following day at 11 AM. The following injuries were found on the person of the deceased.
"1) Incised wound 7 cm. x ¼ cm. muscle deep on the left side of the neck, middle part.
2) Incised wound 12 cm. x 1 cm. upper part of left side of the neck, just below the lobule of left ear.
3) Incised wound 25 cm x 2 cm. bone cut on outer angle of left eye extending towards the left ear. Maxilla was cut.
Zygomatic bone was cut, extending anteriorly and on the back left ear was cut.
Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 4
4) Incised wound 17 cms. x 2 cm. bone cut just above the injury No.3 left frontal and temporal bone was cut.
5) Incised wound 24 cm. x 2 cm. bone cut on left side of fore-head extending upto ear and parietal bone was cut." The Medical Officer on dissection found subcutaneous haemorrhage under injuries 1 and 2. Injuries 1 and 6 were only muscle deep. On dissection of injuries 3 to 5 the Medical Officer found subcutaneous haemorrhage underneath the skin, the muscles, blood vessels of maxilla and zygomatic bone on the left side were cut and left ear was cut. Under injuries 4 and 5 there was subcutaneous haemorrhage under the skin, frontal, temporal and parietal bone on the left side were cut through and through. The brain layers, membranes and brain matter were badly injured and there was about 200 cc of blood. Furthermore, the Medical Officer found that the stomach contained a very small quantity of semi-digest food, small intestines contained digested food and large intestines contained faecal matter. In the opinion of the Medical Officer the cause of death was shock and haemorrhage due to injuries 3 to 5 which were sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.
Gurjant Singh was arrested on January 9, 1997 from Bhure Kona. He was interrogated and this led to the recovery of a kirpan from the banks of the drain in Kali Sakattra. The kirpan was taken into possession. On January 15, 1997, the Investigating Officer raided the house of Karam Singh (the acquitted accused) from where he arrested both Karam Singh and Sahib Singh. After two days, Sahib Singh was interrogated and his kirpan was recovered from the drain in the area of Dhaul Kona which was taken into possession.
Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 5
On April 24, 1997 charges were framed against Gurjant Singh (18), Sahib Singh (19), Satnam Singh (17) and Karam Singh (17) under Section 302/34 IPC to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
The main witnesses examined by the prosecution were Gurcharan Singh (PW-1), Kikkar Singh (PW-3), Dr. Sham Lal Gupta (PW-
4), Sardool Singh (PW-5) and SI Gopal Chand (PW-7).
The accused were examined without oath under Section 313 Cr.P.C. They denied the various items of incriminating evidence led by the prosecution and stated that they were innocent. They had been involved in a false case.
The learned Trial Judge accepted the prosecution version presented by Gurcharan Singh (PW-1) and Kikkar Singh (PW-3) because the names of all the three accused had been mentioned in the first version of Gurcharan Singh, whose statement had been completed at 11.30 AM on December 27, 1996. The FIR was also recorded by 12.30 PM and the special report was delivered to the Magistrate by 2.30 PM. Therefore, the prosecution version was found to be prompt and was accepted. Moreover, the witnesses had been cross-examined at length but nothing could be brought on the file to shatter their sworn testimonies. This was the additional ground to accept their evidence.
The arguments of the defence were noted but rejected. In appeal, it has been argued that there were certain important circumstances which tend to show that the witnesses had not seen the occurrence at all, although Bohar Singh had been brutally attacked and killed with kirpans or some other sharp edged weapon. According to the learned counsel, the accused belong to a village which was nearly 100 Kms Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 6 from Sakattra. There was no evidence to show that the accused had come to Sakattra or had seen in the vicinity of this village on or around the date of occurrence. The prosecution case was that Bohar Singh had been attacked by the accused at 6.30 AM on a cold winter morning in December, when he had gone to answer the call of nature. However, the inquest report revealed that the deceased was wearing was only a chadar and a shirt, and no footwear or warm clothing. A person who goes out in the early hours of the morning to the fields would be warmly clad and would be wearing shoes.
It was also argued that the post-mortem examination revealed that the large intestines contained semi-digested faecal matter, therefore, the deceased had not defecated when he was done to death. The time between the post-mortem and death was 12 to 36 hours which means that death could have occurred any time between 11 PM on December 26 to 11 PM December 27.
On behalf of the State, the submission was that the eye witnesses had given credible evidence. The deceased as well as the two eye witnesses had gone to ease themselves when the occurrence took place. The statement of Gurcharan Singh was amply corroborated by Kikkar Singh. There was some delay in reporting the matter to the police but that was on account of the fact that Gurcharan Singh had gone on foot from Sakattra to Khem Karan, a distance of 11 kms. The accused had been identified by Gurcharan Singh, who knew them well. There was sufficient light at that time as the day had dawned.
The background of the case should be noticed in the beginning. Gurcharan Singh stated in the cross-examination that Ghanatter Singh, father of the accused, was murdered. He had lived at a distance of Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 7 100 karams from his house but later his family had shifted to Mudki, which was 100 kms from Sakattra, about 6-7 years earlier. Furthermore, in cross- examination Gurcharan Singh also admitted that Anar Singh Pahra, a brother of Kikkar Singh, was a terrorist but he denied that Anar Singh Pahra and his son Pippal Singh were killed in a police encounter.
As regards the actual occurrence, Gurcharan Singh admitted in the cross-examination that the deceased had sat down to ease himself at a distance of 15 karams from the witnesses. The deceased was not wearing a shawl or a vest or a pullover at that time. He was dressed only in a shirt, a chadra and a parna on his head. He was bare footed. Furthermore, he admitted in cross-examination that Kikkar Singh had suffered a fracture on his leg when he had fallen in a pit of the electric motor (tubewell) but he denied that Kikkar Singh was unable to run or that he walked with a stick.
If we carefully examine the injuries on the body of the deceased, it would become apparent that the dimensions and the location of injuries appear to be such that at the time of attack the deceased was lying still, probably asleep, on the right side exposing his left side. All the five injuries appears to be with a long edged weapon like a kirpan, as their dimensions ranges from 7 cms to 25cms. Indeed the three fatal injuries, injuries 3,4 and 5, are 25 cms, 17 cms and 24 cms long and are on the outer angle of left eye and left side of the forehead.
A reconstruction of the crime is necessary to be undertaken by us because all injuries were on the left side of the head and may not have been caused to a man squatting on the ground. They were possibly given when he was lying asleep and stationary during the attack. A person squatting on the ground would immediately get up to ward off the blows Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 8 and in the process he would receive injuries in his hands and arms. Only a sleeping man would receive the injuries of the type described in the post- mortem report. All the injuries are on the left side of the head and seem to be repeated blows with a sharp weapon with a long blade like a kirpan.
The other discernible feature of the case is that the deceased was not wearing any warm clothing and was bare foot when he was stated to have gone out of the house to ease himself. This is very unnatural. In December the temperature falls close to freezing point and in the morning it would be extremely cold. There is no reason why a man would step out bare footed and without warm clothings, even if it was an emergency.
Lastly, the medical evidence shows that the stomach contained a small quantity of semi-digested food, small intestines contained digested food and the large intestines contained faecal matter. From this one can conclude that the deceased may have had the urge to defecate but had not cleared his bowels when the attack took place.
On a complete overall view of the prosecution case, we find that there are glaring circumstances which establish that the deceased was not murdered in the manner described by the prosecution witnesses but had met his end under entirely different circumstances. The witnesses had not seen the occurrence and deliberately testified falsely.
Consequently, this appeal is allowed and the accused are acquitted of the charge. They are on bail, then bonds are discharged.
(K.S. GAREWAL)
JUDGE
11.8.2008 (SABINA)
prem JUDGE
Crl. Appeal No. 13DB of 2001 9
Whether refer to reporter Yes