State of Rajasthan vs Bhola Singh and Another

This is an appeal filed by the State of Rajasthan (sic) were tried for (sic) Section 302 re(sic) causing the de(sic) no other than (sic).

Accord(sic) intervening ni(sic) Meet Singh (sic) (deceased) were (sic) Kaur, wife of (sic) with her m(sic) (deceased) in t(sic). The two accu(sic) respective co(sic) distance. It is (sic) a.m. Gurdeep (sic) her husband's (sic) struck a 'kass(sic) mother-in-law (sic) to have seen t(sic) blow on the (sic) 'Gandasa'. She (sic) law but she (sic) claimed to ha(sic) Singh and hu(sic) murdered by by (sic)tive weapons, (sic) attracted Bha(sic) place of occuri(sic) not examined (sic) accused ran away(sic) prosecution is that on hearing cries P. Ws. 2 and 3 came there and tried to run after the accused assailants but could not overtake them. P.W. 3 is alleged to have gone to the house of Suja and informed him about the tripple murder. Suja came to the spot and he claimed that he was informed by Gurdeep Kaur (P.W. 1) that the Respondent-accused killed these persons. Then Suja accompanied by one Nathu rushed to the field of P.W. 5 and informed him about the occurrence. A report was given to the police. The case was registered and in the report it was mentioned that the motive on the part of the accused to commit the murders was that Balbir Singh, accused, wanted 15 bhigas of land in excess of his share from his father Meet Singh (deceased), while he was given only 10 bhigas.

The police held inquest over the three dead bodies and sent them for post-mortem. The doctor who conducted the post-mortem found three critical injuries which could have been caused by a sharp-edged weapon. The prosecution relied mainly on the evidence of P. Ws. 1, 2 and 3. The accused denied the offence. The trial Court accepted the prosecution case and convicted the accused and sentenced both of them to death. The convicted accused also preferred appeals. The High Court rejected the reference for confirmation of death sentence, allowed the appeals filed by the convicted accused. Hence the present appeal arises from the order of the High Court.

From the above-stated facts, it can be seen that the case is rested entirely on the solitary evidence of P.W. 1. The High Court has pointed out several infirmities in the evidence of P.W. 1. It is well-settled that if the case is rested entirely on the sole evidence of eye-witness, such testimony should be wholly reliable. In this case, occurrence admittedly took place in the darkness. The two accused were also sleeping in the court-yard along with the other family members, out of whom three were unfortunately killed on the fateful night. P.W. 1 categorically stated that she woke up only when her mother-in-law was beaten by one of the accused but yet she added that she saw her father-in-law and husband who were sleeping in the court-yard of the house being murdred by the miscreants. This is a clear infirmity in her evidence. That apart, it is highly doubtful that there was any light with the help of which she could identify the accused. On the other hand, a story was built up that an electric bulb was burning, in support of which there is no material. The High Court also considered the evidence of P. Ws. 2 and 3 and admittedly they came afterwards. P.W. 3 claimed in the trial Court that he saw the assailants running away and could identify them from the back. The High Court has rightly pointed out that there was no source of light to identify in the darkness when the assailants were running away. That apart, as rightly pointed out by the High Court, the non-examination of Bhagwan Kaur who immediately reached the place of occurrence warrants an adverse inference. A careful consideration of the evidence of P. Ws. 2 and 3 as well as the other witnesses shows that P.W. 1 did not mention the names immediately. These are the valid and good reasons for not accepting the evidence of sole eye-witness (P.W. 1) and once the evidence of P.W. 1, the sole eye-witness becomes unreliable, the other evidence does not, in any manner advance the case. We see no ground to come to a different conclusion. The appeal is dismissed.