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PETITIONER: BHAG SINGH & ORS. ETC., GURMUKH SINGH AND ANOTHER

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: STATE OF PUNJAB

DATE OF JUDGMENT:       03/09/1997

BENCH: M.M. MUKHERJEE, K.T. THOMAS

ACT:

HEADNOTE:

JUDGMENT:                THE 3RD DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1997 Present:               Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.K. Mukherjee               Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas U.R. Lalit, and  T.S. Arunachalam,  Sr.  Advs.  L.K. Pandey, Adv. with them for the appellants. in Crl. A.No. 638/95. K.B. Sinha, Sr.  Adv., H.S.  Munjral, Vikrant  Rana and  Ms. B. Rana, Advs  with him  for the  appellant  in  Crl.  A.No. 402/95 for M/S. S.S. Rana & Co., Advs. Ajay Bansal, Adv. for R.S. Sodhi, adv. for the Respondents                      J U D G E M E N T      The following Judgment of the Court was delivered:                             WITH               CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 402 OF 1995 THOMAS, J.      This is  the story of a murder committed as revenge for another murder.  Appellants  were  involved  in  the  second murder and  they  challenged  the  conviction  and  sentence imposed on  them by  the sessions court and confirmed by the High court in appeal.      The murdered person in this case was one Bagicha Singh. There was  a dispute  over one house building as between the said Bagicha Singh and one Jagtar Singh which remained alive for some  time. In  that dispute,  Karnail Singh  (father of accused Nos.1  to 3)  gave support  to jagtar  Singh.  In  a Previous incident  the said Karnail Singh was murdered and a criminal case was charge-sheeted against PW-12 Balkar singh, PW-13 Swaran Singh and PW-14 Hardip Singh and some others.      According to  the prosecution version the occurrence in this case  happened on  the night of 27-1-1985 at about 8.00 P.M. when deceased Bagicha Singh was going in the company of PW-12, PW-13  and PW-14  to reach  their village.  They were waylaid by  eight assailants including the appellants herein near the  yard of one Harbans Singh. Appellant Gurmukh Singh (A-1) made  an exhortation  to his  companion assailants  to carry out  the onslaughts  for avenging  the murder  of  his father Karnail  Singh. A-4 Satnam Singh Shot at the deceased with a gun and A-1 Gurmukh Singh, A-3 Gurbinder Singh and A- 6 Gurbux  Singh attacked  the deceased  with kirpans and A-2 Harjinder Singh  with a  spear. A-5  Mohinder Singh  and A-7

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Darshan Singh  dealt blows on PW-13 Swarn Singh with kirpans while A-8  Bhag Singh  fired a  gun  shot  at  him.  As  the assailants thought  that their mission was accomplished they all fled from the place with the weapons.      Bagicha Singh  died on  the spot  and PW-13 Swarn Singh injured was  removed to  the hospital. First Information was lodged by  PW-14 Hardip Singh. All the accused were arrested ought not  have been  relied on.  Second is,  there  was  no reason for  the appellants  to persist  with the revenge for the murder  of Karnail Singh as the murderers were convicted by the  Court. Third is, it was impossible for any person to recount with  meticulous exactitude  the various  individual acts done  by each assailant and since the witnesses in this case have  testified so,  their testimony  should have  been rejected on that score alone.      It may  be true  that PW-12  Balkar Singh,  PW-13 Swarn Singh and  PW-14 Hardip  Singh must have been simmering with grouse against  the appellants  for giving  evidence against them which  led to  their conviction.  Bad Blood  would have existed as  between them,  But it is a fact that PW-13 Swarn Singh had  also suffered  injuries in this occurrence. Hence it is  most unlikely  that he  would have  spared the actual assailants and  falsely implicated  these appellants  merely because he is otherwise ill disposed to them.      It is  in evidence that despite conviction and sentence passed on the accused in Karnail Singh Murder case they were released on bail as per orders of this Court during pendency of the  appeals filed  by them.  So the  fact of  conviction would not  have quenched  the revenging  thirst towards  the murderers of Karnail Singh.      The third point which was forcibly pressed into service by counsel  is that  no eye witnesses can be expected to and some weapons  were recovered by the police and completion of investigation eight  persons including  the appellants  were challenged. Though  the Sessions  Court  convicted  all  the eight accused  of offences  of murders,  attempt  to  commit murder an  rioting etc. the High Court of Punjab and Haryana acquitted A-2  Harjinder Singh,  A-4 Satnam  Singh  and  A-5 Mohinder Singh.  The conviction  and sentence  passed on the appellants were,  however, confirmed  by the  High Court and hence these appeals by special leave.      There is  no dispute that PW-13 Swarn Singh was present at  the  scene  and  he  also  sustained  serious  injurious including lacerated  and incised  wounds on  the head.  This fact helps  us to  agree with  the finding of the two courts that PW-13  Swarn Singh  was able  to see the assailants who attacked him and the deceased. He mentioned the names of the appellants as  assailants without doubt. Evidence shows that it was  a moonlit  night. The  other two eye witnesses PW-12 Balkar Singh and PW-14 Hardip Singh supported the version of PW-13 Swarn Singh.      Learned counsel  for the  appellants  adopted  a  three pronged contention  on the  above evidence. First is, as the witnesses were  all ill  disposed to  the appellants  by the fact that they were convicted in the earlier murder case (in which Karnail  Singh died)  on the  strength of the evidence given by  the appellants,  the testimony  of those witnesses peak with precision regarding the respective roles played by each assailant  including the  sites of  the body where each blow fell  particularly since the occurrence happened during night time  and in  that case  when the witnesses spoke with exactitude their testimony become highly incredible.      It is a general handicap attached to all eye witnesses, if they fail to speak with precision their evidence would be assailed as vague and evasive, on the contrary if they speak

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to all events very well and correctly their evidence becomes vulnerable to  be attacked  as tutored.  Both approaches are dogmatic and  fraught with lack of pragmatism. The testimony of a  witness should  be viewed from broad angles. It should not be  weighed in golden scales, but with cogent standards. In a  particular case  an eye witness may be able to narrate the  incident  with  all  details  without  mistake  if  the occurrence had made an imprint on the canvass of his mind in the sequences in which it occurred. He may be a person whose capacity for  absorption and retention of events is stronger then another  person. It  should be  remembered that what he witnessed was  not something that happens usually but a very exceptional one  so far as he is concerned. If he reproduces it in  the same  sequences as  it registered in his mind the testimony cannot  be dubbed  as  artificial  on  that  score alone.      Here the  trial court which had the opportunity to hear the narration  of the  incident  from  those  witnesses  was impressed by the truth of the version. It is not fair to say now that the testimony of those witnesses deserved rejection for its precision. That apart, they would have spoken in the court as  answers to  different questions put to them by the chief examiner.  It depends  on the  ability  of  the  chief examiner in  eliciting  answers  from  the  witness  in  the correct order  of events.  Looking at the evidence from this angle we  are not  disposed to castigate the evidence of the eye witness  in  this  case  for  speaking  to  the  details correctly.      We do  not find  any good  ground to interfere with the conviction  and   sentence  passed   on  the  appellants  as confirmed by  the High  Court. Accordingly, we dismiss these appeals.