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PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT
Harphul Singh Brar and B.Rai JJ.
Nirmal Singh
Versus
State Of Punjab
Criminal Appeal No. 157 of 1994,
Decided On : JULY 31, 1996
CRIMINAL APPEAL - SECTION 302 IPC - FACTUAL ANALYSIS AND LEGAL INTERPRETATION - EVIDENCE OF CHILD WITNESS - CORROBORATION - DISCOVERY OF WEAPON - INTENTIONAL CAUSATION OF FATAL INJURY - CONVICTION UPHELD.
Fact of the Case:
The appellant, Nirmal Singh, was convicted of murdering his wife, Joginder Kaur, by the Sessions Judge, Amritsar. The prosecution's case was that the appellant had threatened to kill his wife for living with his elder brother, Amarjit Singh. He then took her into a room and killed her with a datar (a sickle-like weapon). The appellant's son, Harjinder Singh, witnessed the incident and raised an alarm. Amarjit Singh arrived and found his brother fleeing the scene with the datar. The police were called, and the appellant was arrested. He led the police to the weapon, which was found to be stained with human blood.
Finding of the Court:
The court found that the evidence of Harjinder Singh was reliable and corroborated by the post-mortem report, the inquest report, and the discovery of the weapon at the instance of the appellant. The court also found that the appellant had intentionally caused the injury that killed his wife.
Issues: 1. Whether the evidence of a child witness can be relied upon to convict an accused person. 2. Whether the discovery of the weapon at the instance of the accused corroborates the testimony of the child witness. 3. Whether the appellant had the intention to kill his wife.
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court held that the evidence of a child witness can be relied upon to convict an accused person, provided that the witness is intelligent enough to understand the questions and answers and is not motivated by any ulterior considerations. 2. The court held that the discovery of the weapon at the instance of the accused corroborated the testimony of the child witness and established the appellant's guilt. 3. The court held that the appellant had the intention to kill his wife, as evidenced by his threats to kill her and the fact that he inflicted multiple injuries on her, including a fatal injury to her neck.
Final Decision: The court dismissed the appellant's appeal and upheld his conviction for murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
Harphul Singh Brar, J.
1. This is an appeal against the judgment/order dated 24.1.1994 of the learned Sessions Judge, Amritsar vide which he convicted Nirmal Singh appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/-. In default of payment of fine, he was ordered to undergo further R.I. for six months.
2. The prosecution story in brief is that Joginder Kaur was married with Nirmal Singh accused who used to mal-treat her and on account of this, she had taken up residence with Amarjit Singh, elder brother of the accused. On 25.6.1991, Harjinder Singh P.W. and his mother Joginder Kaur were present in their house when Nirmal Singh came there and told Joginder Kaur that he would teach her a lesson for having started living with Amarjit Singh. On hearing this, the deceased got up and went inside a room and Nirmal Singh followed her into the room of the house. When Harjinder Singh tried to follow them inside, Nirmal Singh threatened to kill him. In the meantime, Amarjit Singh, the elder brother of the accused had reached there and he asked Harjinder Singh as to why he was weeping. Harjinder Singh told him that Nirmal Singh had taken his mother Joginder Kaur inside the room to kill her. On opening the door, Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh saw that Nirmal Singh was cutting Joginder Kaur after putting his foot on her chest. On seeing Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh, the accused ran away from the spot taking the datar among with him. When they (Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh) went near the place where Joginder Kaur was lying in a pool of blood, Amarjit Singh and Harjinder Singh found that her neck had been cut and she was already dead. Harjinder Singh raised a raula but no one came there and after leaving Harjinder Singh near the dead-body, Amarjit Sigh went to lodge a report with the police. In the area of Chowk Tahli Sahib, Amarjit Singh met S.I. Kishan Singh (PW-7) and before him he made a statement Ex.PW7/A which was read over to Amarjit Singh and he signed the same in token of its correctness. After making his endorsement Ex. PW7/B, S.I. Kishan Singh sent the ruqa to the police-station for registering the formal F.I.R. Ex.PW7/C. Thereafter, S.I. Kishan Singh went to the spot, prepared the Inquest Report Ex.PW5/A in relation to the dead-body of Joginder Kaur and after drawing up request for post-mortem examination Ex. PW7/D and injury statement Ex.PW7/E, he entrusted the dead-body to Constables Surinder Singh and Manjit Singh for getting the post-mortem conducted thereon.
3. The post-mortem examination was conducted on the dead-body of Joginder Kaur by Dr. R.K. Gorea, who found as many as 18 injuries on the dead-body and in report Ex.PA, he indicated the cause of death to be the severance of the head from the body as a result of injury No. 8, which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.
4. After the post-mortem examination, the doctor had handed over the clothes of the deceased to Constables Manjit Singh and Surinder Singh who, in turn, had produced them before S.I. Kishan Singh who took the same in possession through recovery memo Ex.PW7/H. The Sub-Inspector had also picked up blood- stained earth from the spot and after making it into a sealed parcel, took the same into possession through recovery memo Ex.PW7/F. He had also prepared the rough site plan Ex.PW7/G indicating the place of occurrence.
5. The accused was arrested by S.I. Kishan Singh (PW-7) on 28.6.1991 in the area of Chawinda Devi and interrogated him in the presence of ASI Surinder Singh and Amarjit Singh. Upon interrogation, the accused made a disclosure statement to the effect that he had kept concealed a datar in the heap of toori lying in the verandah and he had the exclusive knowledge of the place of concealment and could get the same recovered. This statement Ex.PW7/J was reduced into writing and after the same had been thumb-marked by the accused and atteste
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