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J U D G M E N T WITH CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 710 OF 1995 Mohinder Pal Singh Appellant Versus State of Punjab Respondent B.N.AGRAWAL, J.

The appellants of these two appeals along with accused Bhajan Singh @ Harbhajan Singh and Meharban Singh were made accused in a case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') but as accused Meharban Singh died during trial, the remaining three accused persons were tried and by its judgment the trial court acquitted accused Bhajan Singh @ Harbhajan Singh whereas these two appellants were convicted under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- each, in default to undergo further imprisonment for a period of six months. Against the order of acquittal of accused Harbhajan Singh, no appeal was filed by the State whereas on appeal being filed by the appellants, the High Court confirmed their conviction and sentence. The revision application filed by the private prosecutor for enhancement of sentence has been rejected by the High Court. Prosecution case, in short, was that Kuljit Singh @ Billa was a student of B.A. Part I in Arya College, Ludhiana and he was a witness in a case filed for prosecution of appellant Gurpreet Singh under Section 307 IPC which was pending. On 22nd January, 1990 at about 5.30 p.m., Kuljit Singh along with his brother Harvinder Singh and friends Parminder Singh (PW 2) and Gurvinder Singh (PW 3) was returning to his house after attending classes from Guru Angad Dev College and when they reached near Oriental Public School, the appellants along with accused Meharban Singh, who were present there armed with kirpans, confronted him. Appellant Gurpreet Singh shouted that Kuljit Singh should be done to death and he attacked him with kirpan on his head. Thereafter, appellant Mohinder Pal Singh @ Vicky inflicted kirpan blow in the abdomen of Kuljit Singh. Accused Meharban Singh assaulted him with kirpan on the temporal region whereupon Kuljit Singh fell down. In the meantime, accused Harbhajan Singh who too was armed with kirpan came there and also dealt a kirpan blow on the forehead of Kuljit Singh. All the aforesaid accused persons thereafter inflicted several injuries upon Kuljit Singh even after he fell down. In the process of inflicting injuries, appellant Gurpreet Singh also received injuries at the hands of one of the co- accused. On halla being raised, people of the locality arrived whereafter the accused persons fled away. Kuljit Singh was taken to Christian Medical Hospital by PW 3 and Harvinder Singh where the doctor declared him dead. Thereupon, Harvinder Singh, who was brother of Kuljit Singh  deceased, left for the police station but on the Brown Road, near Christian Medical Hospital, he met Sub Inspector Bakshish Singh (PW 8) who recorded his statement stating therein the aforesaid facts and sent the same to the police station where a case was registered against all the aforesaid four accused persons, including the appellants on the same day at 7.15 p.m. Police after registering the case took up investigation and on completion thereof submitted charge sheet against the accused persons, on receipt whereof, learned magistrate took cognizance and committed all the aforesaid accused persons, including the appellants, to the court of Sessions to face trial. As accused Meharban Singh died during trial, the same proceeded against the remaining three accused persons.

Defence of the accused persons was that they were innocent and were falsely implicated in the case in hand. Specific defence of the appellants was that when they were going to the shop of appellant  Gurpreet Singh and arrived at Jail Road at the time of the present occurrence, Kuljit Singh and his brother Upkar Singh were coming from the opposite direction along with one unknown person and out of them, Kuljit Singh asked his companions to kill appellant Gurpreet Singh whereupon, he was chased and surrounded by Kuljit Singh and others and out of them, Upkar Singh stabbed Gurpreet Singh with his knife. In the meantime, upon halla being raised by appellant Gurpreet Singh, villagers arrived there who assaulted Kuljit Singh and stating the aforesaid facts, a complaint was filed by appellant Gurpreet Singh on 3rd February, 1990 as Gurpreet Singh was hospitalized.

During the course of trial, the prosecution examined eight witnesses in all, out of whom, Dr. I.P.Singh Chhabra (PW 1) was the doctor who conducted postmortem examination on dead body of the deceased. Parminder Singh (PW 2) and Gurvinder Singh (PW 3) claimed to be eyewitnesses to the occurrence. Head Constable Balbir Singh (PW 4) and Constables Manjit Singh (PW 5), Gurcharan Singh (PW 6) and Lakhbir Singh (PW 7) were the formal witnesses whereas SI Bakshish Singh (PW 8) was the Investigating Officer. Informant Harvinder Singh could not be examined as he died before the trial commenced. The defence in support of its case examined three witnesses, namely, Dr. Subodh Radian (DW 1), who is said to have examined injuries of appellant- Gurpreet Singh, and Tarsem Singh (DW 2) and E.Rai Singh (DW 3) were formal witnesses. Upon the conclusion of trial, accused Harbhajan Singh was acquitted whereas the appellants were convicted and their appeal before the High Court having failed, as stated above, the present appeals by special leave. In the present case, presence of the appellants at the time and place of occurrence has not been denied rather admitted. Appellant Gurpreet Singh is said to have been examined by doctor [DW 1] who stated that he found following injury on his person:-

"Penetrating wound on the back of the chest left 8th interracostal space, 5 c.m. from midline, 1-5 c.m. x 0.5 c.m, depth not ascertained along with left haeopheumethroex."

From the dimension of injury, it would appear that the same was superficial one inasmuch as, according to the doctor, even its depth could not be ascertained. The complaint petition was filed by appellant  Gurpreet Singh on 3rd February, 1990, i.e., after eleven days of the date of the incident and the reason for delay disclosed was that the said appellant was discharged from hospital on 3rd of February, 1990. The doctor (DW 1) stated that appellant  Gurpeet Singh remained conscious throughout, but, even then, no explanation is forthcoming why complaint was not filed either by this appellant himself or any of his relations for a period of eleven days after the occurrence. It appears that injury was superficial and complaint was filed after an inordinate delay of eleven days in order to make out a defence in the present case.