IMPORTANT POINT
In cases involving multiple dying declarations, inconsistencies must be critically examined, and the declaration recorded by a Magistrate is typically given more weight, particularly when the reliability of other evidence is in question.

JUDGMENT :

PUSHPENDRA SINGH BHATI, .

1. This criminal appeal under Section 374 Cr.P.C. has been preferred claiming the following relief:

“It is, therefore, humbly prayed that your Lordships may graciously be pleased to accept the present appeal and set aside the conviction and sentences passed by the impugned judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, Ganganagar dated 15-12-1989 in Sessions Case No. 2/86 (State Vs. Jit singh and Others) and acquit the appellants.”

2. The matter pertains to an incident occurred in the year 1985 and the present appeal is pending since the year 1989.

3. The accused-appellants laid a challenge to the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 15.12.1989 passed by the learned Session Judge, Sri Ganganagar, in Sessions Case No. 02/1986 (State of Rajasthan Vs. Jeet Singh & Ors.) whereby the accused-appellants have been convicted and sentenced as below:

4. At the outset, it has been brought to notice of this Court that accused-appellant No. 2-Karnail Singh and accused-appellant No. 3- Dalip Singh since already expired, therefore, the instant appeal qua them already stood abated, as reflected in the orders dated 04.11.2022 and 21.02.2022, respectively. Thus, now the present appeal survived only against accused-appellant No. 1- Jeet Singh, and the arguments were heard only to the extent of the said surviving accused-appellant, and the adjudication in the instant appeal is being made accordingly.

5. Brief facts of the case, as placed before this Court by learned counsel for accused-appellant, are that as per dying declaration of Kalwant Singh (deceased), on 12.09.1985 at around 7:15 a.m., he had gone to get vegetables from his farm. While, he was plucking rice pods for vegetables from his farm, at around 7:15 a.m., Dalip Singh s/o Gopal Singh, Karnail Singh s/o Jeet Singh, and Jeet Singh s/o Sadhu Singh entered the deceased’s farm armed with lathis. Then Karnail Singh dragged the deceased to another field, while putting scarf around the deceased’s neck, and started beating him with lathi; accused-Karnail Singh hit the deceased with lathi and his legs. The reason for such joint assault, was that the deceased misled the relatives of accused-Dalip Singh, which resulted into a dispute between Dalip Singh and his relatives. Thereafter, Naseeb Kaur (PW-3) wife of deceased came there and started shouting, whereupon all the three accused ran away, and the deceased son- Gurjant Singh (PW-1) and his brother- Jogendra Singh (PW-2) also reached at the place of incident, and took the deceased to a hospital.

6. Thereafter, on 12.09.1985, the deceased gave a dying declaration (Ex.P/6) before Baldev Singh (PW-6)-Assistant Sub Inspector of Police Station, Chunawat wherein he stated the whole story at Government Hospital, Sri Ganganagar. On the basis of the aforementioned information, an FIR was registered for the offences under Sections 343, 365, 323 & 447 IPC and the investigation accordingly commenced.

7. Subsequently, on 16.09.1985 another dying declaration was recorded in the presence of Magistrate Shri Krishna Joshi (DW.1) which is the Ex.D/10 wherein deceased-Kalwant Singh stated that the entire incident had happened at the instance of Mohan Das, Narayan Das and Har Govind but they had not been prosecuted. Subsequently, the deceased-Kalwant Singh was transferred to Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, and during the investigation, on 22.09.1985 Kalwant Singh died under treatment; the death was opined to have been caused due to the injuries inflicted by the accused-appellants.

8. The learned Trial Court framed the charges against the accused-appellants and trial accordingly commenced wherein the accused were prosecuted under Sections 364, 302/34 and 447 IPC.

9. During the course of trial, the evidence of 12 prosecution witnesses were recorded and 43-A