The court reinforced the principle that a dying declaration must be credible and corroborated; otherwise, it cannot sustain a conviction, especially where reasonable doubt exists due to procedural lapses.

JUDGMENT :

Mehta, J.

1. Heard.

2. Leave granted.

3. This appeal by special leave takes exception to the judgment dated 24th September, 2024 passed by the Division Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana¹[Hereinafter being referred to as the “High Court”] in CRA-D-1161-DB-2013 whereby the appeal preferred by the appellant under Section 3 74(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973²[For short, “CrPC”] was dismissed and the judgment and order dated 26th August, 2013 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ambala³[Hereinafter being referred to as the “trial Court”] in Sessions Case No. 11-SC of 2012 was affirmed.

4. By the aforesaid judgment, the trial Court convicted the accused-appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE , 1860⁴[For short, “IPC”] and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/-, in default, to further undergo simple imprisonment for three months.

Brief Facts: -

5. Succinctly stated, the case of the prosecution is that on 1st April, 2012, an information was received at the police station Mullana at around 05:30 PM regarding admission of one Munish Kumar into GMCH Sector 32, Chandigarh in an injured condition. On receipt of this information, Sub- Inspector, Somnath (PW-17), along with Head Constable, Dharam Pal (PW-11) proceeded to the said hospital where they were apprised that injured Munish Kumar had been shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh for treatment. Accordingly, the police officials proceeded to the PGI, Chandigarh and filed an application (Exh. P-32) before the concerned Medical Officer seeking opinion regarding the fitness of Munish Kumar to give a statement. It is stated that the Medical Officer recorded his opinion (Exh. P-33) declaring the injured Munish Kumar to be fit for making a statement. Thereupon, the Sub-Inspector, Somnath (PW-17), proceeded to record the statement of the injured Munish Kumar (Exh. P-34) wherein he alleged inter alia as below: -

“He was a resident of Village Jahangirpur, P.S. Mullana and was doing a private job. On 31st March, 2012, at about 10:00 PM, he and his brother Amit were returning to their village from Ambala by car. When they reached near Mullana, they were intercepted by a Scorpio car and an Alto car. Three persons alighted from one of the vehicles, two of whom were alleged to be Bittoo and Sanjay and the other person was connected to Krishna Transport who went by the name of Tarun Sharma. He did not know the identity of the other man. These persons broke into his car and launched an attack on him. Tarun Sharma inflicted a knife blow on the right side of his stomach whereas Sanjay inflicted a knife blow on his head. Bittoo and the other bearded person held him down. The assailants beat him up mercilessly. Amit was kept confined in the car. The assailants took away his mobile and the purse. Amit called his friends who got Munish admitted at the CHC, Mullana from where he was shifted to the Government Hospital, Ambala Cantt and then to General Hospital, Ambala City. Subsequently, he was referred to GMCH, Sector-32, Chandigarh and thereafter was referred to PGI Chandigarh.”

6. The aforesaid statement of the injured Munish Kumar was treated to be the first information report of the incident and based thereupon, an FIR No. 58 dated 1st April, 2012 came to be registered at P.S. Mullana for the offences punishable under Sections 323 , 324, 506 read with Section 34 of the IPC.

7. The investigation was undertaken by Sub- Inspecto