IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 04.03.2025 TILLAN @ TRILOK ... Appellant Versus STATE OF HARYANA ...Respondent CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE GURVINDER SINGH GILL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present: Mr. Keshav Pratap Singh, Advocate with Mr. Tarun Kumar Hooda, Advocate and Mr. Nitin Sausanwal, Advocate for the appellant.

Mr. Ranvir Singh Arya, Addl. A.G., Haryana.

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JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

The present appeal has been filed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 05.11.2003 passed by the Sessions Judge, Faridabad.

2. The FIR was registered on 03.09.2000, the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Sessions Judge, Faridabad is dated 05.11.2003, the appeal was filed on 12.12.2003 and the matter is being taken up for hearing now i.e. after a period of more than 21 ½ years from the date of registration of the FIR.

3. The brief facts of the prosecution case are that complainant- Mahender Singh son of Sukhpal was a resident of Palwal. He had four brothers who were residing separately. His brother Krishan Kumar was unmarried and used to reside alone in his old house whereas he was residing in Kalra Colony, Palwal. On 03.09.2000 at about 6.30 a.m., he was present at his house. Brij Mohan son of Mannu, resident of Gorella Mohalla, Palwal informed him that Krishan Kumar had received head injuries and was lying dead in the street opposite the house of Sewak Ram Mahajan, resident of Gupta Ganj, Palwal. After that the complainant alongwith his brother Kanhiya reached there and found the dead body of his brother Krishan Kumar. He was having injuries on his head which were bleeding. Krishan Kumar deceased was not keeping good company and due to that reason, he was unmarried. The complainant suspected that his murder had been committed by his wayward friends. He also came to know that his brother had gone to watch ‘Rasleela’ on the preceding night and after that he was murdered. A statement Ex.PA was made by Mahender to the police which led to the registration of formal FIR Ex. PA/2 after making an Ex. PA/1. The investigations commenced. A rough site plan of the place of occurrence Ex.PJ was prepared. Sample of blood was lifted from the place of occurrence which was taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex. PB. Postmortem was performed on the body of Krishan Kumar and a report Ex. PC was collected. The accused were arrested and out of them, Tillan alias Trilok made a disclosure statement Ex.PC and on the basis of which he got recovered one iron pipe which was taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex.PD. A site plan of the place of recovery Ex.PD/2 was prepared. Other accused namely Bhimsen, Sudesh, Gabbar and Shiv Dutt also made disclosure statements Ex. PN, Ex. PO, EX.PP and Ex.PQ respectively and on the basis of which they pointed towards the place of occurrence vide memos Ex.PN/1, Ex.PO/1. Ex./PP/1 and Ex.PQ/1. Statements of witnesses were recorded. After receipt of the report of FSL Ex.PH and collecting other incriminating evidence, the challan was submitted to Court.

4. On commitment, the accused were charged for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 148, 302 read with Section 149 IPC to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

5. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined 13 witnesses and the gist of their depositions are as under:-

Mahender Kumar (complainant) was examined as PW1 and reiterated the contents of the FIR. In addition, he stated that he had witnessed the recording of the disclosure statement regarding concealment of the weapon of offence and the subsequent recovery thereof. He also stated that in the month of September, 1999 his brother Krishan Kumar had been subjected to a murderous assault in which the present appellant/Tillan alias Tirlok had been challaned and the case was pending in the Court of the Sessions Judge, Faridabad and listed for hearing for 27^th of that month in which his brother had been