Death sentence - rarest of rare cases

Judgment :-

K.S. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. This criminal appeal arises out of the judgment dated 22.9.2006 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Criminal Appeal No. 890-DB of 2005 and Murder Reference No. 10 of 2005. The High Court dismissed the appeal of the accused persons and also reference was confirmed.

2. The appellants, along with two others, were tried for an offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC for murder of one Kulwant Singh, his two sons – Gurwinder Singh and Davinder Singh and his wife – Sarabjit Kaur on 21.8.2000 at about 1.30 am and were convicted for murder and awarded death sentence.

3. The prosecution case, briefly stated, is as follows:

BalwantSingh and Jaswant Singh are two sons of Sharam Singh (PW 1). Both Balwant Singh and Jaswant Singh died prior to the date of the incident on 21.8.2000. Sharam Singh’s third son Kulwant Singh had two sons – Gurwinder Singh and Davinder Singh. Sarabjit Kaur was his wife. PW1 (Sharam Singh) had 8 acres of land at Village Bhittewad, District Amritsar, which was mutated in his name. In the family partition, that 8 acres of land was divided into four shares, i.e. PW1 gave 2 acres of land each to his sons and wife and 2 acres of land was retained by him. 2nd appellant Jaj Singh and his brother Satnam Singh – accused and his mother Amarjit Kaur – accused, were pressurising on PW1 to get the land transferred in their names in the Revenue record. PW1 wanted them to spend the money for mutation, which was not done. There were frequent quarrels between PW1, 2nd appellant and Amarjit Kaur on that. They nurtured a feeling that PW1, under the influence of his son Kulwant Singh, would not mutate their shares in their names. About 8 to 9 days prior to the incident, 2nd appellant, Satnam Singh and 1st appellant Gurvail Singh went to the house of PW1and threatened him that in case he did not give their share in the land and mutated in their names, they would kill him and his son Kulwant Singh. On 20.8.2000, the appellants and other accused persons were found sitting on a cot outside the house of PW1, threatening PW1 and Kulwant Singh that they would not be spared, since the properties were not mutated in their names.

4. PW1, on the intervening night of 20-21.8.2000, was sleeping in the drawing room of his house and Kulwant Singh, his wife Sarabjir Kaur and two sons Gurwinder Singh and Davinder Singh were sleeping in the courtyard. At about 1-1.30 a.m. on 21.8.2000, PW1 heard somebody knocking at the door of his house and he saw through the window the appellants, Satnam Singh and Amarjit Kaur. 1st appellant was carrying Toka, 2nd appellant was armed with Datar and Amarjit Kaur was carrying Kirpan. 2nd appellant Jaj Singh opened the attack and gave Datar blow to Kulwant Singh and his brother Satnam Singh and inflicted Kirpan blows on Sarabjit Kaur. 1st appellant Gurvail Singh, who was armed with Toka, starting assaulting Gurwinder Singh and Davinder Singh. PW1 tried to intervene and avoid the incident and raised hue and cry, which attracted Dalbag Singh and he opened the door of the Baithak room in which PW1 was kept locked. Due to this incident, Kulwant Singh, his wife Sarabjit Kaur and two sons Gurwinder Singh and Davinder Singh were murdered.

5. PW1 gave the first information statement to PW7, SHO, Police at Police Station Raja Sansi. The statement was recorded in the morning at about 8.00 am. The formal FIR was recorded at about 9.00 am under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC at Police Station Raja Sansi, Amritsar. S.I. Mandip Singh, PW7, took up the investigation. The inquest report of all the four dead bodies was prepared and the bodies were sent for post-mortem. The appellants Gurvail Singh and Jaj Singh were arrested on 25.8.2000 and 5.9.2001 respectively. Satnam Singh was arrested on 25.8.2000 and Amarjit Kaur on 26.8.2000. All the accused were charged for offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.

6. Dr. Gurmanjit Rai, PW2 conducted the autopsy on the dead