Criminal Appeal No. 52-DB of 2011. Case: Sohan Singh @ Charanjit Singh Vs State of Haryana. High Court of Punjab (India)

Case NumberCriminal Appeal No. 52-DB of 2011
CounselFor Appellant: Mr. Jagjit Gill, Advocate and For Respondents: Mr. S. S. Pattar, Sr. DAG
JudgesAjay Kumar Mittal and Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia, JJ.
IssueCriminal Law
Judgement DateMay 17, 2013
CourtHigh Court of Punjab (India)

Judgment:

Ajay Kumar Mittal, J.

  1. Appellant Sohan Singh @ Charanjit Singh (in short, "Sohan Singh") has filed the present appeal against the judgment passed by learned District & Sessions Judge, Sirsa dated 11.11.2010 whereby he has been convicted and sentenced under Section 302 read with section 34 IPC to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of ` 10,000/- and in default thereof, to undergo further simple imprisonment for four months. The appellant has also been convicted and sentenced under Section 201 IPC to undergo RI for three years and to pay a fine of ` 5000/- and in default thereof, to undergo further simple imprisonment for two months. Both the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently. Initially, there were three accused namely Sohan Singh, Malkiat Kaur and Jagmeet Singh. Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh have been convicted and sentenced as mentioned above, whereas Jagmeet Singh has been acquitted. Malkiat Kaur has not filed any appeal. Only Sohan Singh has filed the present appeal. Case of the prosecution is that complainant Sujan Kaur wife of Sher Singh, resident of Village Chormar, made a statement to the police on 12.9.2009 to the effect that her husband expired several years ago. She had three sons namely Darshan Singh, Balbir and Mahender Singh. Darshan Singh and Mahender Singh had expired and their families were living separately. She was living with the children of her son Mahender Singh. Her elder son Darshan Singh had two sons out of whom Jagmeet Singh was elder and Sukha Singh was younger to him. Jagmeet Singh was married and was living separately in the same house and Sukha Singh was residing separately in the same house alongwith his mother Malkiat Kaur. Sukha Singh was addicted to intoxicants. Sohan Singh, resident of Village Naurang was on visiting terms with Sukha Singh and they were doing business together. Sohan Singh often used to visit Malkiat Kaur, daughter-in-law of complainant in the house. Character of Malkiat Kaur was doubtful. Sujan Kaur underwent an eye operation about one month back and she had gone to her daughter Guddi in Village Malikpura. On 12.9.2009 at about 8 AM on receipt of information regarding the death of her grand son Sukha Singh, she reached the house of her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur and saw that her grand son Sukha Singh was lying dead and preparation for his cremation had already been done. When she enquired about the cause of death, her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur told her that Sukha Singh was suffering from brain fever in the night and he died because of the same. Malkiat Kaur took all the family members in confidence and got Sukha Singh cremated. She and her other family members had gone in deep grief on account of the death. After about four hours when she gained consciousness, she enquired from her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur about the ligature marks on the neck of Sukha Singh but she did not give any reply and she suddenly left the house on some pretext. Thereafter when she enquired from her grand son Jagmeet Singh, she came to know that on previous night Sohan Singh had come to the house of Sukha Singh and they both had taken liquor till late in the night. Sohan Singh had illicit relations with Malkiat Kaur and for this reason Sukha Singh used to quarrel with his mother and that is why Sohan Singh and Malkiat Kaur had killed Sukha Singh by throttling his neck. She also personally enquired about the same and the aforesaid fact came to light. Her daughter-in-law Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh in order to conceal their illicit relations and to remove Sukha Singh from their way committed murder of Sukha Singh by administering some intoxicant and then by throttling his neck and getting him cremated clandestinely. On the above statement of Sujan Kaur, complainant, Inspector Heera Singh, SHO Odhan made his endorsement and sent the same to Police Station, Odhan on the basis of which the present case was registered against accused Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh under Sections 302, 201 read with Section 34 IPC.

  2. Inquest proceedings were conducted. Accused Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh were arrested on 13.9.2009. During interrogation, Malkiat Kaur suffered a disclosure statement thereby disclosing the manner as to how they had planned to kill Sukha Singh i.e. by throttling his neck after administering pesticide to him by admixing in the liquor. She also disclosed the place of concealing the bottle of the pesticide. The disclosure statement was reduced into writing and pursuant thereto she got an empty bottle of pesticide recovered from the disclosed place which was converted into a parcel sealed with the seal of SC and was taken into possession vide recovery memo attested by the witness. Similarly Sohan Singh also suffered a disclosure statement and pointed out the place where Sukha Singh was killed. On 14.9.2009, accused Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh during their police remand suffered statements disclosing the role of Jagmeet Singh in the crime. The said disclosure statements were also reduced into writing and in pursuance thereof, Chunni was recovered from the disclosed place which was made into separate parcel after sealing the same with the seal HS. Thereafter on 14.9.2009, accused Jagmeet Singh was arrested and during interrogation, he also suffered a disclosure statement about hatching a conspiracy with accused Malkiat Kaur and Sohan Singh about 10-12 days prior to 11.9.2009 for killing Sukha Singh and about bringing a pesticide bottle from the house of Jagan Singh in the fields where he used to go for labour work.

  3. Statements of the witnesses were recorded under Section 161 Cr.PC. Post mortem of the remnants of the deceased was got conducted. Viscera, bones and burnt clothes of the deceased were made into separate parcels and sealed and were taken into possession vide recovery memo. All the parcels were sent to the FSL, Madhuban for chemical analysis. On completion of investigation, challan was presented in the court against all the three accused under sections 302, 201 read with section 34 IPC. Thereafter the case was committed to the Court of Sessions vide order dated 24.12.2009 by Judicial Magistrate, First Class Dabwali. On 28.01.2010 on being charged for the offence under section 302 read with sections 34 and 201 IPC, all the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

  4. The prosecution examined fifteen witnesses in support of its case besides placing reliance upon several documents. The Public Prosecutor gave up PWs Dr. Virender Deep and ASI Jagdish Parshad as unnecessary and tendered in evidence report of FSL, Madhuban as Ex. PD.

  5. PW-1 Dr. Sunil Gambhir, Resident Doctor, Department of Forensic Medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak conducted post mortem examination on the dead body of Sukha Singh on 15.9.2009 and the report Ex. PA submitted by him contained following observations:-

    Received charred human remains comprising of following:

    i) burnt pieces of cloth, which could be identified. Off white in colour. 2. Cooked up viscera. 3. Left femur upper 1/3th of shaft, with the head of femur intact. 4. Lower pelvic region (left pelvic bone).

    The rest was jumbled and cooked up, could not be identified. On dissection burnt pieces of the body ribs and one clavicle could be identified. The pelvic bone and other human remains were male in character. Head of femur, ischial tuberosity and ishium was fused. The scalp, skull, brain and the thoracic organs were missing. The cooked up viscera as available was preserved for chemical analysis.

  6. After going through the FSL report Ex. PD and PMR, PW1 Dr. Sunil Gambhir vide endorsement Ex. PE/1 on the police application Ex. PE opined that the cause of death could not be ascertained due to described condition of the body. He could not say if the death could be possible by administering poison or by way of throttling. PW-2 Dr. Sunil Kumar, Medical Officer, General Hospital, Sirsa deposed that on 15.9.2009, he alongwith Dr. Virender Deep being the members of the Board of Doctors received one sealed parcel containing unidentified burnt parts of the dead body of Sukha Singh and since exact opinion regarding this case could not be given by the Board of Doctors at that time, they resealed the parcel and referred it to the Forensic Department, PGIMS Rohtak for examination vide referral slip Ex. PF/1. PW-3 ASI Nihal Singh deposed about scribing formal FIR Ex. PH on 12.9.2009 on receipt of Ex. PG statement of Sujan Kaur alongwith ruqa sent by Inspector Heera Singh. PW-4 HC Jaivir Singh and PW5 ASI Bhagat Ram tendered in evidence their duly sworn affidavits Ex. PI and PJ respectively in order to complete the chain of link evidence to the effect that the case property was not tampered with by them or anybody else during the period it remained in their custody. PW6 HC Radhey Sham, Draftsman deposed about preparing scaled site plans on 20.10.2009 as Ex. PK and Ex. PL with correct marginal notes on the demarcation of complainant Sujan Kaur.

  7. PW-7 ASI Hans Raj deposed that on 14.9.2009 he was deputed by Inspector Heera Singh PW15 for getting autopsy conducted on the parts of the dead body of Sukha Singh. He went to PGIMS Rohtak and got post mortem conducted and on 16.9.2009, the Medical officers handed over one parcel containing viscera and other parcels containing papers, etc. to him and he handed over the same to Inspector Heera Singh who took the same into his possession vide recovery memo Ex. PM. PW8 ASI Subhash Chander stated that he remained associated in the investigation of the case with Inspector Heera Singh. PW9 Sujan Kaur, complainant supported the prosecution case and deposed as per her statement Ex. PG made before the police on 12.9.2009. PW-10 Gurcharan Singh deposed that on 11.9.2009 or 12.9.2009 at about 10.30 PM he was called by the wife of Pappu Singh, his God brother to bring a doctor as her daughter Kali was to deliver a child and on the way to the house of Dr. Major Singh, when he reached...

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