IMPORTANT POINT
Acquittal--Law entitle even an accused who has not filed an appeal to an acquittal if the other accused was acquitted.

K.S. Garewal, J.:- On the night of September 15, 2002 Vijender (25) son of Raj Kumar of Baroda, Police Station Uchana, District Jind, disappeared from his house. The matter was reported to the police on September 23, 2002 and later FIR was registered on September 26, 2002 under Section 364/34 IPC. However, unknown to the Uchana police, Vijender’s dead body was found floating in the Rajli Canal near a railway line (District Hisar) on September 20, 2002. The body was taken out from the canal and after inquest proceedings, post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. B.S. Khatri (PW-14) at General Hospital, Hisar. The medical officer opined the cause of death as drowning. A photograph of the body was much later shown to Vijender’s father Raj Kumar after five months on February 20, 2003. The body was identified by him as that of his son Vijender.

2. Vijender’s mother-in-law Om Pati, alongwith Ajit, Satywan @ Pahlwan (son-in-law of Om Pati), Rajesh @ Langra and Dayal Singh @ Dayalu and one Bijender @ Punju were tried for the murder and found guilty under Sections 147/302/364/201 read with 120-B IPC by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Jind, on February 2, 2007. All of them were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 5,000/-. In default of payment of fine, they were directed to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. They were also sentenced for other lesser offences. Out of the six accused, five have filed this joint appeal but no appeal was filed by Bijender @ Punju.

3. The prosecution case was that Vijender was employed as a compounder at the clinic of Dr. Ishwar Midha at Jind but he had been out of work for the last one and half month. Vijender was married to Mukesh daughter of Om Pati of Mirchpur, Hisar. The couple had a eight month old daughter. On the evening of September 15, 2002, Vijender and his wife Mukesh and mother Rajbala went to sleep in the house. Vijender’s father had gone to sleep near the gate. At 11 p.m. Ram Kumar of the village called Raj Kumar asking him to get up. Ram Kumar told Raj Kumar that two persons were waiting outside in the gali and were calling Vijender. They had come in a Maruti and were saying that Suresh Banti of Uchana was calling Vijender. Raj Kumar replied that Vijender was not at the house.

4. On hearing Raj Kumar’s voice, his wife Rajbala also got up and came out of the house. Rajbala went up to the car and asked the men who they were. Out of the 3/4 persons in the car one told Rajbala that he was Rajesh of Bibipur. Rajbala replied that Vijender was not in the house. They started the vehicle but stopped at a distance of about two acres. Rajbala returned to the house and told Vijender that 3-4 persons had come in the car and they were calling out him. When Vijender asked who they were, his mother told him that he was Rajesh of Bibipur. Vijender told his mother that he should have been told earlier. He then went out of the house to meet visitors He did not have any quarrel with those men, he accompanied them on his own.

5. The above has been taken from the missing person report recorded by Vijender’s father Raj Kumar at Police Station, Uchana, on September 23, 2002 (exhibit PA), the eighth day of Vijender’s disappearance. Three days later a fresh statement (exhibit PB) was recorded and made the basis of FIR 164 dated September 26, 2002 under Section 364/34 IPC.

6. The gist of the missing person report exhibit PA has been reproduced in some detail but it deserves to be mentioned that exhibit PB contained an improvement to the effect that Vijender did not accompany his abductors voluntarily but he was made to forcibly sit in the car. It may also be noted that Raj Kumar had revealed exhibit PA his son’s identification marks and that he was “wearing pants and shirt without baniyan and Hawai chappal in the feet”. However, in the second report exhibit PB Raj Kumar recorded that his son was “wearing only badami coloured pants. He is not wearing shirt, b