Ashwani Kumar vs The State Of Punjab Home Department

ASHWANI KUMAR & ANR. ...APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

THE STATE OF PUNJAB ..RESPONDENT(S)

JUDGMENT

K.M. JOSEPH, J.

1. The appeal by special leave is directed

against the judgment of the High court of Punjab &

Haryana in Criminal Appeal No.103 of 2000 Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by

dismissing the appeal filed by the appellants, DEEPAK GUGLANI Date: 2018.11.28 11:08:38 IST Reason:

confirming the conviction and sentence under 1 Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian

Penal Code.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the parties.

3. The prosecution case is that on 18.9.1998

the Assistant sub-inspector along with Head

Constable of police and other police officials were

on patrol duty and while so at about 1.30 p.m.,

they heard shrieks from one room of the house,

which was bolted from the inside. From the gaps in

the door of that room, the Assistant sub-Inspector

peeped inside the room and found that one man was

sitting on the chest of the lady, who was made to

lie on the ground and he was pressing her neck.

One lady was standing near that place and holding a

pucca brick, in her hand. She gave two blows with

the said brick on the person of the lady lying on

the ground. She told the man, the co-accused that

the said lady who was being assaulted was insulting

her before others who was his wife. She also

exhorted the man that he should finish her, 2 thereupon the man lifted a ‘khurpa’ and gave blows

with it. After killing her, both man and the woman

came out and they proclaimed that they have

accomplished their job. It is this man and woman

who are appellants before us.

4. The murdered lady was the wife of the

first appellant. The prosecution advanced its case

through the sub-inspector who was examined as P.W.2

and Head Constable who was examined as P.W.3 Under

Section 313 Cr.P.C. the first appellant has given

the following written statement:

“On the day of occurrence, I left my house for going to Amritsar. On the way, I found that I have left my purse at my house. As such, I returned back to take my purse. I saw a man holding my wife in his arms and my wife also holding him. On seeing me, he ran away. In a rage, I gave push to my wife and her head struck against wall. My wife started saying that I cannot satisfy her sexually and continued to say that my six months old son is not from my loins but is from the loins of this person. She told that she will have other child from loins of her lover also. I lost control over myself and under this provocation caused injuries to 3 my wife. I had extreme love with my child.

I myself had appeared before police and informed about the occurrence. The police made out a false case against me later on and police men became false witnesses.”

5. The second appellant in her 313 statement

claimed that she was innocent and was not present

at the time of the alleged occurrence.

6. The Trial Court on the basis of the

evidence accepted the prosecution version and

convicted the appellants. The High Court also

reposed confidence in the prosecution version.

7. Learned counsel for the appellants

impugned the prosecution version and drew our

attention to the evidence of D.W.1. D.W.1 has

inter alia stated as follows:

Many persons had collected there at the place.

He asked first appellant as to what he had done,

thereupon the first appellant disclosed that he

suspected that somebody was present in his house

4 along with his wife and the doors were closed and

out of sudden provocation, he had killed his wife.

He informed this incident to C. Karam Singh and SPO

Kultar Singh who came on a scooter at the place of

occurrence. He would say that before their arrival

no other police official arrived at the spot. C.

Karam Singh and SPO Kultar Singh then took the

first appellant to the police station. In his

cross examination he has stated that he did not

move any application regarding this incident to the

higher police authorities or executive authorities.

He denied that ASI who had come as prosecution

witness and other police officials had arrested

both accused. As many as 12 stab wounds have been

noted. This is besides 3 lacerated wounds.

According to the doctor, the death in this case was

due to haemorrhage and shock as a result of stab

injuries which was sufficient to cause death in the

ordinary course of nature. There is a case for the

appellant that the conduct of P.W.2 in not breaking

5 open the door and only watching the occurrence for

five minutes renders the evidence suspect.

8. We are not persuaded to overturn the

concurrent findings of the courts below. As

observed by the High Court, there is no motive for

the police officials to falsely implicate the

appellants. The case of the second appellant is

one of alibi. She has not discharged her burden to

show that she was elsewhere. On the other hand,

there is evidence of the police officials that

after committing the crime, the appellants came out

and proclaimed that they have accomplished what

they wanted. They were apprehended. In such

circumstances, we see no reason to allow the

appellants to rely upon the statement of the first

appellant under Section 313 Cr.P.C or upon the

deposition of D.W.1. No doubt, the High Court has

taken the view that D.W.1 has not given complaint

to the higher police officers. The High Court no

doubt also finds fault with the first appellant in

6 not disclosing the name of the person with whom his

wife was found to be in a compromising position.

Even proceeding on the basis that he may not have

known the name of the person it still does not

detract from us reposing confidence in the

testimony of the police officer. The presence of

the second appellant and her being apprehended by

the police officers, has been believed by both the

Courts and this is completely inconsistent with the

case set up by the appellants. In such

circumstances, we see no reason to interfere. The

appeal fails and stands dismissed.

…………………………………CJI.

(Ranjan Gogoi)

………………………………………J. (K.M. Joseph)

New Delhi;

November 28, 2018

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