JUDGMENT :

Sanjay Dhar, J.

The petitioner has challenged order dated 16.01.2021 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu (hereinafter referred to as the “Trial Court”), whereby the charge for offences under Sections 302, 201 and 34 RPC has been framed against him.

2. The background facts leading to filing of the instant petition that emerge from the perusal of the Trial Court record are that a charge-sheet was laid by the Police Station, Bishnah, alleging commission of offences under Sections 302, 109 and 201 RPC by co-accused-Sukhvinder Kumar and commission of offences under Sections 201 and 109 RPC against the co-accused-Arun Khajuria and the petitioner herein.

3. As per the charge-sheet, on 19.11.2017, police recovered dead body of the deceased-Vinod Kumar in suspicious circumstances. Accordingly inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the J&K Cr.P.C were set into motion, during which, statements of the persons acquainted with the circumstances of the case in terms of Section 175 Cr.P.C were recorded and the dead body was subjected to post-mortem. After receipt of post-mortem report, it was found that the deceased had died due to damage of vital organs, leading to Cardio Pulmonary arrest due to blunt trauma to head. Accordingly, FIR bearing No. 01/2019 for offence under Section 302 RPC was registered and investigation was set into motion.

4. During investigation of the case, statements of witnesses under Sections 161 Cr.P.C and 164-A Cr.P.C were recorded and it was found that accused-Sukhvinder Kumar owed a sum of Rs. 30,000/- to the deceased. The investigation revealed that on 18.07.2017, the deceased left his home at about 9.30 A.M. on his motorcycle and he was last seen with accused-Sukhvinder Kumar. On 25.07.2019, the accused-Sukhvinder Kumar was taken into custody and during interrogation, he admitted that he owed Rs. 30,000/- to the deceased, as he had purchased 10 grams of heroin from him, out of which 02 grams of heroin were consumed by the deceased. He further narrated before the police that he assaulted the deceased with a screw driver, which resulted in his death, whereafter, he called the other two accused, i.e., Arun Khajuria and Binni Kumar (petitioner herein), who helped him in carrying the dead body of the deceased in van bearing Registration No. JK02BV-9428 for its disposal. The weapon of offence screw driver was recovered on the basis of disclosure statement made by the accused-Sukhvinder Kumar. After investigation of the case, police found that offences under Sections 302, 109 and 201 RPC are found established against the accused- Sukhvinder Kumar, whereas against two other accused, only offences under Sections 201 and 109 RPC were found established.

5. At the time of considering the question of framing of charge, the learned Trial Court vide its order dated 06.02.2020, instead of determining as to whether or not the charges are made out against the accused, directed the investigating agency to conduct further investigation in the case after constituting a Special Investigating Team (SIT). It was directed by the learned Trial Court that the investigating agency shall conduct the test identification parade of the accused and collect CDRs of the cell phones of the accused. The further investigation was to be conducted within a period of one month.

6. Pursuant to the directions of the learned Trial Court, the investigating agency conducted further investigation of the case, during which statement under Section 164 of Cr. P.C. of PW-Bahadur Singh was recorded. The said witness in his earlier statement recorded under Section 161 of Cr. P.C. had deposed about the presence of two persons along with main accused in the Van in which dead body of the deceased was being carried. Besides this, as per the directions of the learned Trial Court, the investigating agency also sought CDR data pertaining to mobile cell numbers of the petitioner-Binny Kumar and the co-accused-Arun Khajuria, but they could not