Judgment

FAZL ALI, J.:- This is an appeal by Maghar Singh by special leave against the order of the High Court dated February 12, 1974 confirming the conviction and sentence of death against Maghar Singh and sentence of life imprisonment on Smt. Surjit Kaur under Section 302 I.P.C. Both the High Court of Punjab & Haryana who have confirmed the conviction and sentence against the appellant as also the Sessions Judge have carefully scanned the evidence and it is, therefore, not necessary for us to detail the facts of the present case. We shall, however, give a brief resume of the prosecution case which resulted in the murder of Gurbux Singh resulting from lust and greed on the part of the appellant and Smt. Surjit Kaur.

2. Smt. Surjit Kaur was living with the deceased Gurbux Singh for about 9/10 years as his wife. The approver Baldev Singh, P.W. 11, was her pichhlagu son offspring from the first husband. What appeared to be a happy married life for quite a few years appears to have been subsequently disrupted by the entry of Maghar Singh accused who started clandestine visits to the house of the deceased 3/4 years before the occurrence and developed illicit intimacy with Smt. Surjit Kaur. According to the prosecution Smt. Surjit Kaur eloped with the appellant about 6/7 months before the occurrence but returned to her husband Gurbux Singh after an attempt was made by him to bring her home 9/10 days before the occurrence, the occurrence having taken place on June 14, 1972 at 10 P.M. in village Kotduna, Tahsil and District Barnala. Even after the return of Surjit Kaur, Maghar Singh continued to visit the house of the deceased and continued his intimacy with Surjit Kaur which was strongly resented by the deceased. As the deceased appeared to be a very serious obstacle in the illicit relations of Surjit Kaur and Maghar Singh the two accused after taking Baldev Singh approver (P.W.11) into confidence planned the murder of the deceased Gurbux Singh. The immediate cause for the murder of the deceased was provided by the fact that the deceased Gurbux Singh had made a will in favour of the Pichhlagu son Baldev Singh and Surjit Kaur thought that lest the deceased might change his mind it is better to finish him off and grab the entire property for her son. Animated with this object, Maghar Singh knocked at the door of the house of the deceased at 10 P.M. when the deceased was sitting in his house.The door was opened by Smt. Surjit Kaur and Maghar Singh entered with a Kirpan Ext. P-5, Surjit Kaur caught the deceased by his long hair while the approver Baldev Singh caught his legs, Maghar Singh gave several Kirpan blows in quick succession on the neck and other parts of his body causing as many as 17 injuries out of which injuries Nos. 2, 3, 5, 8 and 15 as mentioned by Dr. M. S. Caplash P.W. 1 were incised wounds and were sufficient to cause the death of the deceased. The deceased raised an alarm on receiving the first blow which attracted Sarwan Singh, P.W. 3, the brother of the deceased to the house, but as he got no response from the inmates of the house he climbed the roof of the house and found Surjit Kaur and Maghar Singh sitting on one cot in the courtyard. He enquired from Surjit Kaur as to what had happened but she explained away that the deceased had some fits and she was looking after him. This apparently satisfied Sarwan Singh and he went back to his house. In the morning Sarwan Singh again returned to the house of the deceased to enquire about the welfare of his brother, but Surjit Kaur gave incoherent answers and tried to avoid the questions. This abnormal conduct of Surjit Kaur as also the presence of blood in the court-yard aroused his suspicion and he at once went to the house of Bachan Singh, P. W. 4, the Panch of the village and narrated the entire story to the Panch as also to Bhajan Singh Lambardar. When these persons reached the spot, Maghar Singh slipped out of the house and Surjit Kaur had sent away her son Baldeo Sing