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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Murder--Acquittal--Eye-witness

2010(1) LAW HERALD (P&H) (DB) 422
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
(DIVISION BENCH)
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Jaswant Singh
Criminal Appeal No.504-DB of 2001
Jaibir and Anr.
v.
State of Haryana
{Decided on 13/01/2010}
For the Appellants: Mr. Vinod Ghai, Advocate.
For the Respondent State: Mr. S.S. Patter, Sr. Deputy Advocate General, Haryana.
Indian Penal Code, 1860, S.302 r/w S.34--Murder--Acquittal--Eye-witness--It cannot be believed that a 21 year young son, a serving armed personnel along with 25 years old cousin would do nothing to intervene during and after occurrence and would rather run away from spot to hide themselves in their house--Conduct of two eye witnesses, son and nephew of deceased during and after occurrence raises serious doubt about their presence at time of occurrence rendering prosecution case doubtful--Accused ran away after inflicting injuries in a span of minutes--No reason given which prevented eye witnesses from taking any action during entire night reporting matter to police in morning--Inspite of eye witness account of complainant naming accused appellants, the circumstance of summoning “Dog Squad” further goes to make prosecution version highly doubtful--Witnesses to recoveries of weapons of offence and clothes of both accused are none else than relations of complainant party--In fact, deceased alongwith two other was convicted for murder of father of accused persons--No doubt motive could be attributed to accused but at same time it cannot be lost sight of that it is a double edged weapon and hence on same premise false implication of accused cannot be ruled out--Story put forth by eye witness highly unreliable and doubtful as their eye witness account stood shattered and cannot be made basis of upholding finding of conviction.