Parsa Singh and Others vs State of Rajasthan

R.S. Chauhan, J.—Parsa Singh, Ram Singh and Shankar Singh have filed the present appeal against the judgment dated 13.11.1992 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Beawar whereby the learned Judge has convicted them for offence under Section 302/34 IPC and had sentenced them to life imprisonment, imposed a fine of Rs. 500/- and directed them to further undergo a sentence of six months of rigorous imprisonment in default thereof. During the pendency of the present appeal, Parsa Singh has expired. Therefore, the appeal qua him abates. Hence the present appeal is being decided only qua Ram Singh and Shankar Singh.

Briefly, the facts of the case are that on 20.10.1988 Afu W/o. Megh Singh lodged a written report (Ex. P.19) with the SHO, Police Station Masuda, District Ajmer. The written report (Ex. P.19) when translated into English, reads as under:--

To,

The SHO, Police Station Masuda.

Sir,

It is humbly submitted that today at 8:00 AM, I and my husband went to our field for picking cotton. The moment we entered our field, Parsa S/o. Ghasi, Ghashi, Mana, Sayari, Kamla, Panchi S/o. Rama, Shankar, Chiman S/o. Ghasi, Shankar S/o. Ghasi, by caste Rawat r/o. Kirap who were hiding themselves in the field, suddenly came towards us. Parsa was armed with a Farsi, Shankar with a Kulhadi, Rama with a Lathi. All of them assaulted my husband. I ran towards our well where Kana Rawat was working at the well. I asked him to intervene and to separate the assailants from my husband. But he refused to do so as he was afraid that they will also assault him. When the assailants left the place, I went and looked after my husband. But he had become unconscious. His forehead... his ear had sustained injuries. I went and told the villagers to place him in a bus and brought him to Masuda. Therefore, I am filing this report to start the proceedings.

Sd/-"

On the basis of the written report (Ex. P.19), the police chalked out a formal FIR (Ex. P.20), namely FIR No. 61/88, for offences under Sections 147, 307, 148, 149, 323, 324, 447 IPC and started the investigation. Subsequently, with the death of Megh Singh on 20.10.1988, the offence under Section 302 IPC was added. After completion of the investigation, the police filed a charge-sheet against Parsa Singh, Ram Singh and Shankar Singh for offences under Sections 302, 302/34 IPC. The chargesheet was submitted before the Judicial Magistrate. Subsequently, the case was committed to the learned Sessions Judge wherefrom the case was transferred to the learned Judge. The learned Judge framed charge for offence under Section 302 IPC and in the alternative, under Section 302/34 IPC. In order to support its case, the prosecution examined sixteen witnesses, and submitted twenty-six documents. The defence also examined a single witness, and submitted four documents. After going through the documentary and oral evidence, the learned Judge convicted and sentenced the appellants, as aforementioned. Hence, this appeal before this court.

Mr. Rajendra Singh Tanwar, the learned counsel for the appellants has raised the following contentions before this court: firstly, it is a case of blind murder that nobody has seen. Yet in order to convict the appellants, the witnesses have been concocted by the investigating agency. The concoction is apparent from the fact that Afu (P.W.7), the complainant, does not mention the name of a single eyewitness in the FIR. If they had been, indeed, present at the scene of the crime, the complainant would have certainly mentioned the name in the FIR.

Secondly, although the FIR was registered at 1.15 PM on 20.10.1998 at the Police Station, it did not reach the Area Magistrate till 12.40 PM on 21.10.1998. Thus, there is an inordinate delay of almost twenty-four hours. The delay in sending the special report to the Magistrate clearly proves that the time was taken for falsely implicating the appellants.

Thirdly, the conduct of the eyewitness is rather surprising. For, if, indeed, they had seen the murder of Megh Singh, they would have rushed to his rescue and would have taken him to the hospital. Yet according to the Panchayatnama (Ex. P.5), the presence of these eyewitnesses is not there when the Panchayatnama was drawn. Instead, other persons who were not mentioned as eyewitnesses by the prosecution, namely Manna Singh, Babu, Hunkar Ji, Ghisa and Hameera, were the Panchas before whom the inquest report was made.

Fourthly, the falsity of the case is apparent from the fact that in the FIR, Afu (P.W.6) had named as many as nine persons as assailants. Yet after a thorough investigation, the police had filed chargesheet only against three persons.

Fifthly, the prosecution has produced six persons as eyewitnesses, namely Dalip Singh (P.W.1), Afu (P.W.6), the complainant, Naini (P.W.7), Ramudi (P.W.8), the daughter of the deceased, Kana (P.W.9) and Nainu Singh (P.W.10). However, a critical analysis of their testimonies clearly reveal that in fact, none of these are eyewitnesses, but are fake witnesses.

Lastly, no motive has been attributed by the prosecution to the accused for committing the murder to Megh Singh. Neither his wife, Afu (P.W.6), nor his daughter Ramudi (P.w.8) informs the court about any animosity between Megh Singh and the accused appellants. Therefore, the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

On the other hand, Mr. Aladeen Khan, the learned Public Prosecutor has claimed that in a case of direct evidence, motive has no relevance.

Secondly, Dr. Ajit Kumar (P.W.13) and Dr. Devkinandan (P.W.5) have established the fact that Megh Singh had a homicidal death.

Thirdly, the eyewitnesses have given a consistent story that the appellants had killed Megh Singh. Therefore, the learned Public Prosecution has supported the impugned judgment.

Heard the learned counsel for the parties, perused the impugned judgment and examined the record.

Admittedly, the date of occurrence is 20.10.1988 at 8:00 AM, the FIR was registered on 20.10.1988 at 1:15 PM, yet according to the notation made in the FIR, the FIR was not received by the Area Magistrate till 21.10.1988 at 12:40 PM. Thus, there is an inordinate delay of about twenty-four hours in sending the FIR to the concerned Magistrate. Section 157 Cr.P.C. requires that a FIR should be sent immediately to the Area Magistrate. The law makes this requirement essential in order to ensure that the FIRs are not backdated, and the time taken between the alleged registration of the FIR, and sending of the FIR to the Area Magistrate is not used for falsely implicating the accused person(s).

In the case of Bijoy Singh and Another Vs. State of Bihar, AIR 2002 SC 1949 : (2002) CriLJ 2623 : (2002) 2 Crimes 437 : (2002) 1 JT 372 Supp : (2002) 3 SCALE 592 : (2002) 9 SCC 147 : (2002) 3 SCR 179 : (2002) 1 UJ 749 : (2002) AIRSCW 1873 : (2002) 4 Supreme 362 , the Hon''ble Supreme Court has elaborately dealt with the effect of delay in sending the FIR to the Ilaka Magistrate as under:

"7. Sending the copy of the special report to the Magistrate as required under Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code is the only external check on the working of the police agency, imposed by law which is required to be strictly followed. The delay in sending the copy of the FIR may by itself not render the whole of the case of the prosecution as doubtful but shall put the court on guard to find out as to whether the version as stated in the Court was the same version as earlier reported in the FIR or was the result of deliberations involving some other persons who were actually not involved in the commission of the crime. Immediate sending of the report mentioned in Section 157 Cr.P.C. is the mandate of law. Delay wherever found is required to be explained by the prosecution. If the delay is reasonably explained, no adverse inference can be drawn but failure to explain the delay would require the court to minutely examine the prosecution version for ensuring itself as to whether any innocent person has been implicated in the crime or not. Insisting upon the accused to seek an explanation of the delay is not the requirement of law. It is always for the prosecution to explain such a delay and if plausible and sufficient explanation is tendered, no adverse inference can be drawn against it."

Since the delay has not been explained by the prosecution, a grave possibility does exist that innocent persons have been falsely implicated in the present case.

Dalip Singh (P.W.1) informs the court that "he is a teacher at Village Kirap for the last eleven years. Therefore, he known the villagers". In his examination-in-chief he claims that "I was coming on Luna from Village Masuda to Kirap on 20.10.1988". He saw that two or three persons were assaulting a person. He asked them as to why they were assaulting that person. When he asked them, they threatened him. Therefore, he went away. He further claims that "he cannot say that as to which weapon was with whom". Although in his examination-in-chief he claims that Parsa, Ram Singh and Chhitar assaulted Megh Singh. But in his cross-examination he admits that "he has never seen Megh Singh except at the place of the occurrence".

This witness does not give any reason for his presence at the place of the occurrence except to say that he was going on the road on his Luna. Thus, this person is obviously a chance witness. Since he claimed that he had never seen Megh Singh prior to the incident, naturally he cannot identify Megh Singh as Megh Singh happens to be a total stranger to him. Yet, this witness would have the court believe that he has seen the actual occurrence. However, this court does not find Dalip Singh as a reliable witness.

Afu (P.W.6) is the complainant and is, thus, an important witness for the prosecution. In her examination-in-chief she states that on the fateful day her husband, her children and she had gone to the fields for taking cotton. According to her, she sat at the boundary of the field, when her husband told her that he is going to the temple of Maharaj for burning incense and praying. "From my field, the temple of Maharaj is about four fields away. He was accompanied by my daughter, Ramudi. Parsa, Shankar and Ramu were hiding in the Jwar crop. They went to the temple where my husband went for worshiping. They assaulted my husband with Barchi, Lathi and Kulhadi on his head and other places. My daughter raised an alarm. I was about a field away. Parsa had a Barchi in his hand, Shankar had a Kulhadi and Rama had a lathi. My mother-in-law, Naini, tried to stop me from running towards the temple as she thought that they would also kill me".

Although it is true that a FIR is not required to be encyclopedic in its scope, but nonetheless, it must contain the essential information. Since the FIR is a document that not only sets the criminal process in motion, but most importantly is a touchstone for verifying the authenticity of the prosecution case. In the present case, Afu (P.W.6) claims that her mother-in-law, Naini, her daughter, Ramudi, Kana and Naino Singh were all present when the occurrence took place. However, she has not even mentioned her mother-in-law and Ramudi, her closest relatives, as witnesses of the occurrence.

Moreover, if Kana (P.W.9) and Naino Singh (P.W.10) were actually present, one would have expected them either to run to the rescue of the deceased, or at least help the helpless widow to carry the dead body of her husband to the nearest medical facility. Yet neither Kana, nor Naino Singh do the needful. Thus, their presence at the scene of the crime is suspect.

It is rather surprising that even in the inquest report (Ex. P.5), their presence is not shown as one of the Panchas. Since inquest report is another document which is subject to a scrutiny by independent witness, namely the doctor, the inquest report tends to reveal the hidden aspects of the prosecution case. Hence, the presence of the alleged eyewitnesses is highly doubtful.

Afu (P.W.6) claims that immediately after hearing the alarm of her husband, she rushed to the place of incident and witnessed the occurrence. Yet, Ramudi (P.W.8), her own daughter, tells the court that her mother did not come to the place of the incident till after the incident was over. Therefore, it is obvious that Afu is not an eyewitness of the incident.

Moreover, even Ramudi (P.W.8) claims that as soon as she saw her father being assaulted, she ran away from the place of incident and went to Kana. This fact is corroborated by Kana (P.W.9) who claims that Ramudi came to him.

Kana (P.W.9) claims that Dalip Singh (P.W.1) was not only an eyewitness, but also stayed behind after the incident was over. However, Dalip Singh (P.W.1) merely claims that after he was threatened, he went on his Luna on his way. Since Dalip Singh does not explain the reason for his moving on his Luna, he appears to be a chance witness. Moreover, Dalip Singh in his cross-examination admits the fact that he did not know Megh Singh, the deceased, prior to the occurrence. Thus, it is very unlikely that he would be able to identify a stranger, that too while moving on a Luna. Hence, even Kana and Dalip Singh, the two alleged independent witnesses, appear to be concocted witnesses by the police.

For the reasons stated above, the appeal is, hereby, allowed. The appellants, Ram Singh and Shankar Singh, are acquitted of the charges leveled against them. In view of acceptance of the appeal, the appellant No. 2, Ram Singh, who is confined in jail shall be released forthwith, if not required in any other case. The bail bonds furnished by appellant No. 3, Shankar Singh stand discharged.

Keeping, however, in view the provisions of Section 437-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the appellant No. 2, namely Ramsingh is directed to forthwith furnish a personal bond in the sum of Rs. 20,000/- [Rupees Twenty Thousand Only] and a surety bond in the like amount, before the trial Court. The bonds, so furnished shall be effective for a period of six-months. The bonds shall contain an undertaking that in the event of filing of Special Leave Petition against the judgment or on grant of leave, the appellant, on receipt of notice thereof, shall appear before the Hon''ble Apex Court.