IMPORTANT POINT
Officials responsible for defective investigation must be punished.

Judgment :-

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. Settled canons of criminal jurisprudence when applied in their correct perspective, give rise to the following questions for consideration of the Court in the present appeal:

a) Where acts of omission and commission, deliberate or otherwise, are committed by the investigating agency or other significant witnesses instrumental in proving the offence, what approach, in appreciation of evidence, should be adopted?

b) Depending upon the answer to the above, what directions should be issued by the courts of competent jurisdiction?

c) Whenever there is some conflict in the eye-witness version of events and the medical evidence, what effect will it have on the case of the prosecution and what would be the manner in which the Court should appreciate such evidence?

2. The facts giving rise to the questions in the present appeal are that the fields of Gurumukh Singh and Dayal Singh were adjoining in the village Salwati within the limits of Police Station Sittarganj, district Udham Singh Nagar. These fields were separated by a mend (boundary mound). On 8th December, 1985, Gurumukh Singh, the complainant, who was examined as PW2, along with his father Pyara Singh, had gone to their fields. At about 12 noon, Smt. Balwant Kaur, PW4, wife of Pyara Singh came to the fields to give meals to Pyara Singh and their son Gurumukh Singh. At about 12.45 p.m, the accused persons, namely, Dayal Singh, Budh Singh & Resham Singh (both sons of Dayal Singh) and Pahalwan Singh came to the fields wielding lathis and started hurling abuses. They asked Pyara Singh and Gurumukh Singh as to why they were placing earth on their mend, upon which they answered that mend was a joint property belonging to both the parties. Without any provocation, all the accused persons started attacking Pyara Singh with lathis. Gurumukh Singh, PW2, at that time, was at a little distance from his father and Smt. Balwant Kaur, PW4, was nearby. On seeing the occurrence, they raised an alarm and went to rescue Pyara Singh. The accused, however, inflicted lathi injuries on both PW2 and PW4. In the meanwhile, Satnam Singh, who was ploughing his fields, which were quite close to the fields of the parties and Uttam Singh (PW5) who was coming to his village from another village, saw the occurrence. These two persons even challenged the accused persons upon which the accused persons ran away from the place of occurrence. Pyara Singh, who had been attacked by all the accused persons with lathis fell down and succumbed to his injuries on the spot. Few villagers also came to the spot. According to the prosecution, pagri (Ex.1) of one of the accused, Budh Singh, had fallen on the spot which was subsequently taken into custody by the Police. Gurumukh Singh, PW2, left the dead body of his deceased father in the custody of the villagers and went to the police station where he got the report, Exhibit Ka-3, scribed by Kashmir Singh in relation to the occurrence. The report was lodged at about 2.15 p.m. on 8th December, 1985 by PW2 in presence of SI Kartar Singh, PW6. FIR (Exhibit Ka-4A) was registered and the investigating machinery was put into motion. The two injured witnesses, namely, PW2 and PW4 were examined by Dr. P.C. Pande, PW1, the medical officer at the Public Health Centre, Sittarganj on the date of occurrence. At 4.00 p.m., the doctor examined PW2 and noticed the following injuries on the person of the injured witness vide Injury Report, Ex. Ka-1.

PW-2

“1. Lacerated wound of 5 cm X 1 cm and 1 cm in depth. Margins were lacerated. Red fresh blood was present over wound. Wound was caused by hard and blunt object. Wound was at the junction of left parietal and occipital bone 7 cm from upper part of left ear caused by blunt object. Advised X- ray. Skull A.P. and lateral and the injury was kept under observation.

2. Contusion of 6 cm X 2.5 cm on left side of body 3 cm above the left ilic crest. Simple in nature caused by hard and blunt object.”

According