Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

2.1. That on 06.01.2016, one person by the name of Surender Singh came to the police station and stated that he along with Ravinder Singh and Mandeep Singh was residing in a rented accommodation for the last two years and Ravinder Singh is missing since 31.12.2015 from 6.00 pm. He searched for him and when he saw the poster of the body, it was similar to that of Ravinder Singh. When he was shown the photograph of the body, he identified him that of Ravinder. In this way, the identity of the deceased was revealed. After investigation, the accused Mandeep was arrested and charge-sheet was filed against him U/s 302/201 IPC.

F. PW-6 Dr. Pooja proved the MLC of deceased as Ex.PW6/A. She deposed that the patient Ravinder Singh was brought dead and she observed external injuries on the face and lacerated wound on the back of the head of the body.

G. PW-7 Narender Singh deposed that he, Hayat Singh (PW11) and Ravinder were good friends and they stayed together in the room of Ravinder at Mahipalpur from 29.12.2015 to 31.12.2015. On 31.12.2015, while they were present in the room of Ravinder alongwith their other friend Vinod, in the evening, brother of Ravinder, who used to reside in the same room came there and he borrowed Rs. 5000/- from him for the night of 31.12.2015. Thereafter, he alongwith Vinod, Hayat and Ravinder went for attending the New Year Party in Hauz Khas Village. When they were returning back to the room of Ravinder and had reached near Mahipalpur Flyover at about 01:30 am, Ravinder asked them for more drink. Thereafter, they went to toll tax in Chinar, Haryana Border for purchase of liquor. At about 04:00 am in the morning, they reached the room of Ravinder. At the room, Ravinder introduced them to accused Mandeep Singh and informed them about his birthday. Ravinder asked Mandeep to have drinks. They all consumed liquor. After consuming 2-3 drinks, accused Mandeep went to sleep in another room in the front. He alongwith Hayat, Vinod and Ravinder continued to take drinks. While drinking, Ravinder became aggressive and started using abusive language. He was asking for more drink, but they refused. Ravinder threw the liquor upon him. As he became upset, he picked his bag and alongwith Hayat and Vinod left the place. Ravinder was trying to stop them from going, in the meantime, accused Mandeep woke up and stopped Ravinder not to do silly things to stop them.

State Vs. Mandeep Singh Page No. 8 of 59 9

He deposed that when they reached back to the flat of Ravinder, Mandeep opened the door. Mandeep consumed 2-3 pegs of alcohol with them as it was his birthday and he was invited to drink. After drinking, he left to sleep. They also refused to drink any further, however, Ravinder forced them to drink. On this, Ravinder got aggressive and started saying that they will have to drink with him and threw a drink on him (PW7). At this, he got angry. He said to Ravinder that he always does like this whenever he comes and he does not want to stay in his room. They started packing their luggage and Ravinder stopped them. After Ravinder threw drink at him, he got aggressive and they all started abusing each other. Ravinder got further aggressive with him and his friends had to hold him back as he was approaching towards him. He was also throwing the stuff lying in the room all over the place. He started throwing the household items which included pots, table stand, etc. They left the place at around 5 am. At the time when they were leaving, Mandeep was holding Ravinder to allow them to go. While leaving, they asked Mandeep to hold Ravinder back as they knew that Ravinder would not allow them to go out. The landlord had come at around 4:30 -4:40 am when all this ruckus was going on and he advised them not to create any nuisance and Ravinder apologized him for the same. They traveled from Mahipalpur after leaving Ravinder's house to Chhattarpur at around 5 am in a car. At 5-6 pm on 01.01.2016, he Vinod and Hayat went to Ravinder's room as Hayat had left his slippers and jeans in the room. They opened the room with the key. On 02.01.2016, when Surender called him and asked about Ravinder, he explained to him all that happened on the night of 31st. On this, Surender said that Ravinder would probably come back as he had done this in the past also. On 3rd, he returned the money to Surender. On 7 th, he received call from Surender to come to Delhi before police. He denied the remaining suggestions given by the Ld. Defence Counsel.

9.3. This position was reiterated in Hatti Singh v. State of Haryana (2007) 12 SCC 471.

State Vs. Mandeep Singh Page No. 47 of 59 48

9.4. Bearing in mind the settled position of law regarding the applicability of the last seen theory, the Court has to examine the evidence of last seen available in the present case. The prosecution has relied upon the testimony of PW7, PW11, PW12 & PW14.

9.5. It is argued by ld. Defence Counsel that the body of Ravinder was recovered from the gali and not from the room where he was last seen by the prosecution witnesses. It is further submitted that PW21 Nitish Chaudhary, who is the son of the landlord, deposed that he opened the room which was bolted from outside at around 11-12 pm on 01.01.2016 and accused Mandeep was found inside the room. It is submitted that the testimony of PW21 proves that after friends of Ravinder left the room, Ravinder also went after them bolting the room from outside, which was subsequently opened by PW21 on the next day on 01.01.2016 at around 11-12 noon /pm. 9.6. Per contra, it is argued by the ld. APP for the State that accused Mandeep in his disclosure statement Ex.PW12/C has disclosed that after committing the murder of Ravinder, he returned back to the room and asked one passerby to lock the room from outside.