Bagga Singh vs State of Punjab

Hemant Gupta, J.—The present appeal is by Bagga Singh aggrieved against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 03.09.2008 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Ferozepur, convicting and sentencing the appellant for life imprisonment for the offence punishable u/s 302 and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/-. In default of payment of fine, the appellant was directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year. The prosecution case was set in motion on the statement of Puran Singh, father of the deceased Sonu made to SI Swaran Singh, Station House Officer, P.S. Zira on 16.03.2008. In his statement (Ex. P4), Puran Singh has stated that today i.e. 16.03.2008 as usual when he along with his brother Balwinder Singh and his son Sonu were standing near the chowk of their house, then at about 7.50 AM Gurmej Singh son of Dial Singh, resident of Village Shah Abukar passed near by them from chowk and went to the house of Bagga Singh son of Baldev Singh, the present appellant. At about 8.00 AM, Bagga Singh armed with a spade (kassi) came from his house and Baldev Singh @ Bhutto armed with takua came from that road, which was leading to village Bhagela Wala from the chowk. On coming, Bagga Singh gave two spade blows to his son Sonu directly with an intention to kill him, which hit on the right side of his neck as a result of which his son fell down and died at the spot. Baldev Singh @ Bhutto armed with takua was standing to stop his son from the front side. On raising alarm, both the accused Bagga Singh and Baldev Singh @ Bhutto fled away to village Bhagel Wala with their respective weapons. He further stated that the murder of his son is on account of the conspiracy of Gurmej Singh son of Dial Singh and that the cause of grudge is that the accused party had suspicion that his son Sonu has an evil eye on Jinder Kaur, sister of Bagga Singh. On the basis of such statement, ruqa was sent to the Police Station for registration of an FIR. On receipt of ruqa, FIR (Ex. P4/B) was lodged at about 10.30 AM. The special report was received by the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class on the same date at about 2.00 PM.

Thereafter, the police party headed by SI Swaran Singh accompanied Puran Singh and visited the place of occurrence and lifted blood stained earth from the spot, which was taken into possession vide Ex. P5 after converting into sealed parcel. He also prepared rough site plan Ex. P15. After completion of inquest proceedings, he sent the dead body of Sonu to Civil Hospital, Zira for conducting post-mortem examination.

On 17.03.2008, accused Bagga Singh was arrested. During interrogation on 19.03.2008, he suffered a disclosure statement (Ex. P17) to the effect that he has kept concealed the spade in his residential house. In pursuance of such disclosure statement, he got recovered the spade smeared with blood from the disclosed place i.e. in the kotha meant for storage of chaff, which was taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex. P18. After completing the other necessary formalities, the accused was made to stand trial for the offence punishable under Sections 302 IPC.

To prove its case, the prosecution examined PW-1 Dr. Harpal Singh, who conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Sonu on 16.03.2008 at about 3.10 PM and found the following injuries:

An incised wound 14 cm x 2 cm size, curve shaped, on the back and right side of neck, 3 cm below the ear lobule, clotted blood was present.

An incised wound 12 cm x 2 cm size, curve shape, on the right side of neck, 2cm below the injury No. 1, lower end of the injury was touching the lower of the above injury on the right side. Clotted blood was present.

In his opinion, the cause of death was due to hemorrhage and shock as a result of injuries to the major blood vessels, which was sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature.

PW-2 Puran Singh, father of the deceased as well as author of FIR while stepping into witness box has reiterated his statement Ex. P4. In the lengthy cross-examination, the testimony of the witness could not be shattered in any manner. In his cross-examination, he stated that a Panchayat consisting of four members was convened about two months prior to the occurrence in respect of the suspicion that his son Sonu is keeping evil eye on the daughter of Baldev Singh @ Bhutto i.e. father of the present appellant. It was resolved in the said meeting that he (Puran Singh) should make his son understand, whereas Baldev Singh @ Bhutto was to make his daughter understand and further that they both should desist from their earlier activities. PW-3 Balwinder Singh, brother of PW-2 Puran Singh has also supported the prosecution case in its entirety. He also stood the test of cross-examination.

To complete the chain of circumstance, apart from examining the above witnesses and other witnesses of formal nature, the prosecution has also examined PW-10 SI Swaran Singh, the Investigating Officer, who deposed with regard to the investigations carried out by him.

All the incriminating circumstances appearing in the prosecution evidence were put to the accused in his statement recorded u/s 313 Cr.P.C. In his statement, Bagga Singh denied the prosecution story. He stated that his family was supporting Gurmej Singh son of Dial Singh in election of Panchayat and family of complainant was supporting Sarabjit Singh. Sarabjit Singh has intimacy with Police, so his name along with the names of his father and Gurmej Singh has been given by the complainant on suspicion and at the instance of Sarabjit Singh. In defence, the accused-appellant examined DW-1 Constable Sukhdev Singh, who brought the summoned record i.e. DDR register dated 02.09.2007 and DW-2 Jaswinder Singh son of Resham Singh, who deposed that on 16.03.2008 at about 5.30/5.45 AM, when he along with Ajaib Singh and Gurmej Singh were discussing about the forthcoming panchayat elections, they heard commotion from the house of Puran Singh. Thereafter, he, Ajaib Singh and one Buta Singh went to the house of Puran Singh, where the dead body of Sonu was lying in the court yard of the house of Puran Singh and on enquiry, it came to light that some unknown persons have lynched Sonu.

After considering the entire evidence on record, the learned trial Court convicted and sentenced the appellant, as mentioned above.

Before this Court, relying upon the part of the statement of PW-2 Puran Singh, where he has deposed that he suspected that the accused has committed the murder on account of the activities of his son and the sister of the appellant, learned counsel for the appellant contended that it is the suspicion of the accused, which led PW-2 Puran Singh to name the present appellant.

We do not find that any such inference is deductable from such statement. The suspicion is regarding motive to take life of the deceased alone and not the manner in which occurrence has taken place. In the present case, the police has recorded the statement of the father of the deceased at about 10.00 AM i.e. within two hours of the occurrence. It has come on record that the distance between the house of the appellant and that of the victim is about 8/10 karams. The occurrence has taken place near the house of the deceased and that the house of the accused is also situated nearby. The spade, the offending weapon, has been recovered in pursuance of the disclosure statement suffered by the appellant. Such spade is found stained with human blood as per the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory Ex. P-20. The statement of PW-2 Puran Singh, father of the deceased is corroborated by PW-3 Balwinder Singh. The place of injuries as deposed by PW-2 Puran Singh in his statements is corroborated through medical evidence given by PW-1 Dr. Harpal Singh.

The learned trial Court relied upon the testimonies of PW-2 Puran Singh, father of the deceased and PW-3 Balwinder Singh in correct perspective to discard the defence evidence especially of DW-2 Jaswinder Singh, as it is improbable that he accompanied by Ajaib Singh and Butta Singh was sitting with Gurmej Singh in the early hours i.e. 5.30/5.45 AM just for having discussion in respect of forthcoming panchayat elections. The learned trial Court also came to the conclusion that DW-2 Jaswinder Singh is a man of Gurmej Singh, whose name also appeared in the statement made by PW-2 Puran Singh, father of the deceased i.e. the basis of FIR.

In view of the above, we find that there is no error in the findings recorded by the learned trial Court convicting and sentencing the accused-appellant for an offence punishable u/s 302 IPC. Consequently, the present appeal is dismissed.