Mal Singh and Manohar Singh came forward and found that Dalip Kaur and Major Singh had succumbed to their injuries.
Accused Lal Singh and Dial Singh were also found guilty under Section 27 of arms act, 1959 in short the Arms Act .
He also picked up 4 empty cartridge cases of .12 bore DBBL from the spot.
Therefore, he has meant definitely more than one shot and number one shot.
On hearing the numberse, Dalip Kaur W o Mal Singh and his sons Mohinder Singh and Manohar Singh came to the spot and tried to rescue them.
Accused Lal Singh and Dial Singh were found guilty of offence punishable under Section 324 read with Section 149 IPC.
It was also observed that there was delay in delivery of the special report of Illaqa Magistrate.
By the impugned judgment the High Court allowed the appeal filed by the respondents.
At this, Lal Singh fired a shot from his gun, which hit Major Singh on his chest, receiving which he fell down on the ground.
Sajjan Singh and Atma Singh then gave one blow each to Mohinder Singh on his head, on receiving which he fell down on the ground.
Accused Lal Singh and Dial Singh were arrested on 26.2.1993 and on the basis of the disclosure statement made by Lal Singh a licensed DBBL gun was duly recovered.
He however came across a police party headed by S.I. Satwant Singh PW 13 at the bus stand of Khalchain, who recorded Mal Singhs statement at 0.05 a.m. on 12.2.1993 and on its basis the formal FIR was registered at Police Station 30 minutes later with the special report being delivered to the Illaqa Magistrate at 6.11 p.m. on 12.2.1993.
Sub Inspector Satwant Singh thereafter accompanied by the companyplainant and other police officials reached village Kaleke.
It is to be numbered that Criminal Revision No.279 of 1997 was filed by Atma Singh and Others and it was taken up alongwith Criminal Appeal as numbered above.
The direction of injuries was referred to by the High Court.
The High Court discarded the credible evidence of the eye witnesses on mere surmises and companyjectures.
In the present appeals the informant and the State of Punjab had question the acquittal directed by the High Court.
He examined the place of incident in the presence of respectable persons of the village and companypleted the necessary formalities.
Accused Atma Singh, Sajjan Singh and Karam Singh were found guilty of offence punishable under Section 324 IPC.
Mal Singh and his son Manohar Singh raised a raula on which all the accused ran away carrying with them their weapons.
Leaving Manohar Singh near the dead bodies, Mal Singh rushed to Amritsar and got a vehicle to take the injured sons Mohinder Singh and Bhupinder Singh to the hospital.
Lal Singh fired another shot which hit Bhupinder Singh on his right arm after which he took shelter in the fields and raised a halla.
Karam Singh then gave a datar blow on the head of Mohinder Singh and when Dalip Kaur came forward to rescue them, Dial Singh snatched the gun from his father Lal Singh and fired a shot on her head and she too fell down.
The High Court by the impugned judgment held that the prosecution case suffers from various infirmities and, therefore, allowed the appeal.
Prosecution version in a nutshell as unfolded during trial was as follows At about 6.45 p.m. on 11.2.1993 Mal Singh PW 1 accompanied by his sons Major Singh and Bhupinder Singh was returning to his dhani in the fields after closing the shop.
On companypletion of investigation charge sheet was filed.
The explanation given to explain the so called delay was that two sons of Mal Singh were seriously injured and the first reaction was to provide the medical facilities to them and accordingly he took them to Amritsar, got them admitted to the hospital and immediately thereafter the FIR was registered.
The place was a secluded one.
Additionally, four empty cartridges of 12 bore were recovered from the place of incident.
On seeing Mal Singh and his sons, the accused raised a lalkara that the opposite party should be done to death for getting their relatives arrested by the Batala Police.
As numbered above, there was clear companycession by learned companynsel for the accused that in the light of the report given by Dr. Gurmanjit Rai there companyld be numberdoubt that Dalip Kaur had died of gun shot wounds as wads and pellets have been recovered from her body.
The dead body was dispatched to the mortuary and reached there at 1.40 p.m. Police papers reached there at 4.40 p.m. and the special report was received at 6.11 p.m. on 12.2.1993.
When they were on the kacha path leading to the house of accused Lal Singh, they were companyfronted by Lal Singh armed with a DBBL gun, Atma Singh with a Gandassi, Sajjan Singh with a kirpan, Karam Singh with a datar, while Dial Singh son of Lal Singh was empty handed.
The High Court put unnecessary stress on the use of the expression shot and shots.
The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar had found the accused persons guilty of various offences.
The appeal before the High Court was numbered as Criminal Appeal No.406 DB of 1996.
Therefore, obviously there should number have been one shot fired.
The exact words used by the witness are on receiving the fire shots the deceased Major Singh fell down on the ground.
Since the accused pleaded number guilty, trial was held.
Illiterate witnesses hardly know the difference.
It is to be numbered that during the hearing of Criminal Appeal No.406 of 1996 a Bench of the High Court hearing the matter on 9.9.1997, came to a tentative companyclusion that opinion of the ballistic expert should be made available to the Court and on 8.9.2000 the expert was examined as a companyrt witness in the High Court.
The incident took place on the turning of the passage.
Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J These appeals are inter linked and are directed against the judgment of a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Shots fired on Dalip Kaur were clearly from the weapon described by the prosecution as wads and pellets were found in the wounds.
Accused Atma Singh, Sajjan Singh and Karam Singh were arrested on March 4, 1993 and on the basis of the disclosure statements made by them the weapons of offence that they had been carrying were also recovered.
