The
State of Rajasthan Vs. Shri Teja Singh & Ors
[2001] Insc 69 (7
February 2001)
N. Santosh
Hegde & Shivaraj V. Patil. Santosh Hegde, J.
L...I...T.......T.......T.......T.......T.......T.......T..J
Being
aggrieved by the judgment of the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur in Crl. Appeal No.329/82 dated
12.1.1988 whereby the High Court reversed the judgment of conviction and
sentence awarded by the Sessions Judge, Hanumangarh, in Sessions Case No.56/81,
the State of Rajasthan has preferred this appeal.
Briefly
stated, the facts leading to this appeal are :
On
15.8.1981 between 4 and 4.30 p.m. one Hazoora Singh, resident of Jandawali, his
daughter Amrao and Sadhu Singh were sitting under a tree near their house when
they heard a loud shriek coming from a nearby house of Billu Majhabi whereupon
it is stated that the said trio rushed to the place of occurrence and saw Mukhtiar
Kaur (A-3), Bhajan Singh (A-2) had caught hold of the legs of one Malkiat Singh
(deceased) while Teja Singh (A-1) was stabbing the said Malkiat Singh with a Kirpan.
At about the same time, many other persons of the village had also gathered at
the spot and on seeing the crowd gathering, the abovenamed 3 accused fled from
the scene of occurrence. It is alleged that the said Malkiat Singh died on the
spot. Immediately thereafter Hazoora Singh went to Ram Pratap, Sarpanch of the
village and informed him of the incident, who, in turn, reported the matter to
the Police over telephone. The motive for the attack is stated to be certain
enmity harboured by the parties against each other in regard to kidnapping of
the daughter of Hazoora Singh, namely, Guddi, some years ago.
It is
also stated that the accused Mukhtiar Kaur (A-3) was having an illicit affair
with Teja Singh. Based on the above information by the Sarpanch, Iqbal Singh
(PW-10) registered an FIR at about 7.30 p.m. the same day at Police Station Hanumangarh Junction and a case under
Section 302 read with 34 IPC was registered. It is stated that after the arrest
of the said accused persons, a blood-stained Kirpan was recovered from Teja
Singh (A-1) and certain other blood stained clothes were also recovered during
the course of investigation. On completion of the investigation, a chargesheet
was prepared in which a charge under Section 302 IPC was framed against Teja
Singh while a charge under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC was framed
against both Mukhtiar Kaur and Bhajan Singh. The learned Sessions Judge
believed the evidence of Hazoora Singh (PW-6), Amrao (PW-7) and Sadhu Singh
(PW-9) who had allegedly witnessed the ghastly incident in question and placing
reliance on the recovery of the blood stained clothes recovered from the
accused, convicted Teja Singh (A-1) under Section 302 IPC, and Bhajan Singh and
Mukhtiar Kaur (being A-2 and A-3 respectively) for offence under Section 302
read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life.
On an appeal filed by the accused persons, the High Court came to the
conclusion that even though according to the prosecution version there were
many independent eye-witnesses, none of them was examined by the prosecution
while it is only Hazoora Singh (PW-6), Amrao (PW-7) and Sadhu Singh (PW-9) who
were the close relatives of the deceased alone were examined and it was not
safe to rely upon the evidence of these interested witnesses without any
further corroboration. The High Court also took note of the fact that the Sarpanch
of the village Ram Pratap who, according to the prosecution, was the first
person to communicate the incident in question to the Police though cited as a
prosecution witness, was not examined by the prosecution but was examined as a defence
witness. The High Court further took notice of the fact that though the
incident under reference was reported and an FIR was registered at about 7.30
p.m. on the date of the occurrence itself i.e. on 15.8.1981, the First
Information Report reached the Court of Magistrate at Hanumangarh which is not
very far away from the Police Station only on 17.8.1981 which delay though
sought to be explained by the prosecution, did not find favour with the High
Court. The High Court also took into account the fact that Sadhu Singh (PW-9)
who is alleged to be an eye- witness though was present during the course of
investigation, was examined only on 20.8.1981 nearly 5 days after the incident
because of which the High Court felt it was not safe to rely upon his
testimony. In view of the above circumstances, the High Court came to the
conclusion that the prosecution in this case has not proved its case beyond
reasonable doubt, hence, allowed the appeal, setting aside the conviction and
sentences imposed on the appellants before it and respondents herein.
It is
against this judgment of the High Court that the State of Rajasthan is in appeal before us. On behalf
of the appellant, it is strenuously argued that the High Court erred in
rejecting the evidence of the 3 eye-witnesses whose presence could not have
been doubted at the time of the incident and they having witnessed the attack,
had no reason whatsoever to falsely implicate the accused persons. It is also
argued that the FIR in question was lodged at about 7.30 p.m. on 15.8.1981.
Since the said day happened to be a holiday on account of it being Independence
Day and the next being Sunday, the court being closed, the First Information
Report could reach the court only on Monday i.e. 17.8.1981 hence there was
nothing unusual about the delay in sending FIR to the court. Learned counsel
has also vehemently argued that so far as Ram Pratap, Sarpanch of the village
is concerned, he was not a willing witness hence a bailable warrant was issued
seeking his presence in court but since the same could not be executed, he
could not be examined. So, no adverse inference could be drawn. More particularly,
learned counsel drew our attention to the finding of the High Court that at the
time of the incident when the 3 eye- witnesses named above were sitting under
the tree, according to the understanding of the High Court, there were large
number of other villagers also present but were not examined by the
prosecution, therefore, the High Court drew adverse inference which, according
to the learned counsel, was erroneous because it was not the prosecution case
that at the time when the 3 eye- witnesses were sitting outside their house,
there was any other person present.
Therefore,
the High Court committed certain factual errors as to the presence of other
eye-witnesses.
We
have examined the evidence of the three eye- witnesses as also that of Iqbal Singh
(PW-10), the Investigating Officer. We have also perused the evidence of Ram Pratap,
Sarpanch (DW-1) and we do not find any reason to differ with the finding of the
High Court which sitting as the first court of appeal on facts, had every right
to re-appreciate the evidence. In our opinion, the High Court, in that process,
has not committed any error. As a matter of fact, the explanation put forth by
the learned counsel in regard to the delay in the FIR reaching the court is not
tenable because assuming that there were some court holidays that cannot be a
ground for the delay in the FIR reaching the Magistrate, because requirement of
law is that the FIR should reach the concerned Magistrate without any undue
delay. We are of the opinion that the explanation given by the prosecution
regarding the delay in the FIR reaching the Magistrate is neither convincing
nor acceptable.
In
regard to the next argument of the appellants counsel that the High Court was
wrong in assuming that other villagers were sitting with PWs 6, 7 and 9,
assuming that it is an error even then there can be no doubt as could be seen
from the prosecution case that other villagers whether sitting with PWs 6, 7
& 9 or not did rush to the scene of occurrence, therefore, it is clear that
apart from the said eye-witnesses produced by the prosecution many other
villagers would have atleast seen the last part of the occurrence including the
escape of the accused and the accused not being strangers to those villagers
could have easily identified them by not examining those independent witnesses,
the prosecution has failed to produce the available independent corroborative
evidence to support the evidence of interested witnesses, namely, PWs 6, 7
& 9 because of which the High Court was justified in drawing adverse
inference against the prosecution. This lack of corroboration of the evidence
of PWs 6, 7 & 9 coupled with the fact that PW-6 is admittedly a very old
person having problems with his eyes makes it difficult to believe that he was
really in a position to identify the accused persons.
The
evidence of the eye-witness PW-9 also becomes suspect because of the fact that
though he was available in the village, his evidence was recorded only after 5
days of the crime for which the explanation given by the Investigating Officer
is not at all satisfactory. The presence of the third eye-witness i.e. PW-7, Amrao,
is also doubtful because of the fact that even though she stated that she had
lifted the body of the deceased which was bleeding and her clothes had become
blood stained, the Investigating Officer failed to recover the said clothes
giving room for a genuine complaint that her presence is also doubtful. These
factors coupled with the evidence of DW-1 Ram Pratap who in his evidence has
stated that when he was told about the incident these eye-witnesses did not
mention the name of the accused persons to him, also makes the prosecution case
doubtful.
Therefore,
in our opinion, the High Court was justified in not placing any reliance on the
evidence of these 3 eye-witnesses without any independent corroboration.
For
the reasons stated above, we are in agreement with the findings of the High
Court and we see no merit in this appeal and the same is dismissed. The bail
bonds of the respondents stand discharged.
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