The court ruled that consistent eyewitness testimony substantiates the appellant's conviction for murder, negating claims of accidental death.

MEENAKSHI I. MEHTA, J.

By way of instant criminal appeal, the above-named appellant  has laid challenge to the judgment and order on sentence dated 31.05.2014, as handed down by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sangrur (for short ‘the trial Court’), in the criminal case arising out of FIR No.220 dated 27.11.2013 registered at Police Station Dirba, under Section 302 IPC , whereby he (appellant) has been held guilty for committing the afore-said offence and has been awarded the sentence as under:-

It has, further, been ordered that in the event of realization of fine, an amount of Rs.80,000/- be given to the children of Ranjit Kaur (here-in-after to be referred as ‘the deceased’), as compensation under Section 357 Cr.P.C, subject to the provisions of Section 357 (2) Cr.P.C.

2. Shorn and short of unnecessary details, the facts, culminating in the filing of present appeal, are that on 27.11.2013, Inspector/SHO Shubeg Singh, along-with some other police officials, was present at ‘naka bandi’ (putting-up of barricades) at Bus Stand, Dirba in connection with patrolling duty. Complainant Sukhdev Singh son of Piara Singh met him there and made a statement before him (SHO) which was reduced into writing accordingly. The complainant stated that his sister Ranjit Kaur (since deceased) was aged about 35 years and she had been married to the appellant about 13 years ago. Two children namely Amandeep Kaur and Karandeep Singh, aged about 12 years and 07 years respectively, had born out of their wedlock. The appellant was a drunkard and the deceased used to ask him to refrain from consuming alcohol and due to this reason, he (appellant) used to beat and torture her and send her to her parental house but they used to send her back to her matrimonial home after making her understand the matter. About four days prior to that day, the deceased called him (complainant) on the phone and informed him that the appellant was beating her and was forcibly throwing her out of the house. Then, he sent his father to her (deceased’s) matrimonial home but on 26.11.2013, the deceased and her father were forcibly turned out from there after being abused and they reached at his (complainant’s) village at about 10:00 A.M. However, on receipt of a phone-call at about 12:00 Noon on the same day, regarding the demise of grandmother-in-law of deceased, he (complainant), his brother Jarnail Singh and cousin brother Pargat Singh took the deceased to her matrimonial house and attended the funeral. Thereafter, they left the deceased there and returned to their village. On that day (27.11.2013), at about 9:00 A.M, the deceased informed him on phone that the appellant had given her beatings under the influence of liquor and was ousting her from their home. On receiving this information, he, along-with his above- named cousin brother, reached at the matrimonial home of deceased around 12:00 Noon and she (deceased) started narrating her plight to them and when he tried to make the appellant understand the matter, he (appellant) picked up one ‘Ghotna’ (a kitchen tool, i.e a wooden stick with a rounded head, used for mashing/grinding ingredients in a mortar) lying in the house and hit the same on the head of deceased who lost consciousness and fell down. On his raising an alarm, the appellant ran away from the spot along- with afore-said ‘Ghotna’. After making arrangement for transportation, he and his cousin brother took the deceased to Deep Hospital at Dirba for her treatment but she succumbed to her injuries. He had suspicion that the father-in-law of deceased namely Saun Singh, had also conspired to cause her death. This statement was forwarded to the Police Station