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Showing contexts for: Prompt fir in State Of U.P vs Krishna Master & Ors on 3 August, 2010Matching Fragments
The High Court has further held that motive alleged against deceased Guljari was developed for the first time during trial by witness Jhabbulal and there was no motive for the respondents to commit the murders of as many as five persons of the family of Gulzari Lal. A conjoint and purposeful reading of FIR with the reliable testimony of PW1 Jhabbulal and that of PW2 Madan Lal makes it very clear that the respondents were agitated and angry when the daughter of respondent No.1 had eloped with the son of the first informant. The evidence on record further shows that during the time of first elopement, on one day son of the first informant, i.e., Amar Singh, was spotted in the village and on learning about the fact that son of the first informant was seen in the village, the respondents were prepared to take revenge to what is known as to maintain honour of the family. However, the fact that Amar Singh was likely to be assaulted by the respondents had become known to wife of Guljari who had fore-warned Amar Singh and Amar Singh had, therefore, left the village to save his life. The evidence also indicates that the fact that Amar Singh had left the village all of a sudden because of information conveyed by wife of the deceased Gulzari that respondents were to assault him was later on learnt by the respondents and, therefore, the respondents were bearing a grudge against wife of Gulzari and against Gulzari. The record further shows that when the daughter of the respondent No.1 had returned to the village, Guljari in the presence of the first informant had made a suggestion to the respondent No.1 that he should get his daughter married with the son of the first informant upon which the respondent No.1 had taken an offence and asked Gulzari not to play with the honour of his family. This Court is of the opinion that sufficient evidence has been led by the prosecution to establish motive which prompted the respondents to kill five members of family of deceased Guljari. What weighed with the High Court in disbelieving the motive suggested by the prosecution was the fact that in the FIR lodged by PW1 Jhabbulal, it was not stated that because wife of Gulzari had forewarned Amar Singh about impending assault on him by the respondents, the respondents were not able to take revenge against Amar Singh and that Gulzari had suggested to the respondent No.1 to get his daughter married with son of PW1. The High Court held that such story was developed for the first time during trial by witness Jhabbulal who was admittedly on inimical terms with the respondents. As far as this aspect is concerned, this Court notices that the FIR need not be an encyclopedia of all the facts and circumstances on which the prosecution relies. The main purpose of the FIR is to enable a police officer to satisfy himself as to whether commission of cognizable offences is indicated so that further investigation can be undertaken by him. The purpose of the FIR is to set the criminal law in motion and it is not customary to mention every minute detail of the prosecution case in the FIR. FIR is never treated as a substantive piece of evidence and has a limited use, i.e., it can be used for the corroborating or contradicting the maker of it. Law requires FIR to contain basic prosecution case and not minute details. The law developed on the subject is that even if an accused is not named in the FIR he can be held guilty if prosecution leads reliable and satisfactory evidence which proves his participation in crime. Similarly, the witnesses whose names are not mentioned in the FIR but examined during the course of trial can be relied upon for the purpose of basing conviction against the accused. Non-mentioning of motive in the FIR cannot be regarded as omission to state important and material fact. As a principle, it has been ruled by this Court that omission to give details in the FIR as to manner in which weapon was used by accused is not material omission amounting to contradiction. Further, this is a case wherein FIR was filed by a rustic man and, therefore, non-mentioning of motive in the FIR cannot be attached much importance. In Superintendent of Police, CBI & Ors. vs. Tapan Kumar Singh, AIR 2003 SC 4140, it has been held by this Court that mere absence of indication about source of light in the FIR for identifying assailants does not, in any way, affect prosecution version. The FIR is not the last words in the prosecution case and in some cases detailed FIR could be a ground for suspicion. What is relevant to find out is whether the FIR was lodged promptly and whether it is actuated by mala fides. The record of this case indicates that FIR regarding gruesome murder of six persons was filed promptly and without any avoidable delay and, therefore, false implication of any of the respondents in such a grievous case stands ruled out. There is nothing on the record to show that FIR was result of deliberation by the first informant with other persons. As the FIR was lodged promptly, the informant, i.e., Jhabbulal's evidence containing minor variations not affecting substratum of prosecution story cannot be discarded on the ground that motive which prompted the respondents to kill six persons was not mentioned in the FIR. Further, it is well settled that the prosecution is not supposed to prove motive when prosecution relies on direct evidence, i.e., evidence of eye- witnesses. In this case, the prosecution has examined first informant as PW1 who has lost his brother in the incident as well as PW2 Madan Lal who lost five members of his family. Their evidence is found to be trustworthy and unimpeachable. As observed earlier, their evidence does not suffer from major contradiction and/or improvements nor noticeable embellishment have been made by them. As the prosecution has led acceptable eye-witnesses account of the incident, this Court is of the firm opinion that failure to establish motive would not entitle the respondents to claim acquittal.