TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (8) TMI 1190
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....ccused Chandra @ Chandrawati, who is absconding and from the said wedlock, three children, namely, Satbir, Atbir and Anju were born to them. Thereafter, Jaswant Singh married Sheela Devi, the deceased and from their wedlock, one daughter Sonu @ Savita and one son Manish @ Mannu - the deceased, were born. Sheela Devi - the 2nd wife of Jaswant Singh was staying at Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi, with her children. They were having dispute over the division of their properties. (b) On the afternoon of 22.01.1996, on receiving information of murder of a man and that of one injured at N-33, Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi, Inspector Virender Singh, Addl. S.H.O., Mukherjee Nagar Police Station along with ASI Kanwar Lal, Ct. Manoj Kumar and Ct. Jogender Singh rushed to the place of occurrence and found two dead bodies, one of female and other of a boy aged about 16 years in the adjacent room on the ground floor of N-33, Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi. Both were later identified as Smt. Sheela Devi, second wife of Jaswant Singh and her son Manish @ Mannu. It was revealed at the spot that one injured, namely, Sonu @ Savita, daughter of Sheela Devi was removed to Hindu Rao Hospital in a PCR Gypsy. After lea....
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....Judge and upheld the conviction of the appellants awarded by him. Against the said judgment, the appellants have preferred these appeals by way of special leave before this Court. 3. Heard Mr. K.B. Sinha, learned senior counsel for the appellant in Crl. Appeal No. 870 of 2006, Mr. A.T.M. Rangaramanujam, learned senior counsel for the appellant in Crl. Appeal No. 877 of 2006 and Mr. J.S. Atri, learned senior counsel for the respondent-State. 4. Mr. K. B. Sinha, learned senior counsel, has raised the following contentions: (i) Whether the dying declaration made before the police officer without there being any corroboration from any other independent witness in itself is sufficient to convict the accused with capital punishment. (ii) When there was sufficient time for the Magistrate to be called for recording the dying declaration, the statement made before the Investigating Officer can be treated as dying declaration and the conviction of the accused with capital punishment can be sustained. (iii) When the Doctor-PW 30, in whose presence the alleged statement "Dying Declaration" was recorded, has stated in his deposition that the trachea of the decea....
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....rused the relevant materials. 8. Among the various contentions raised by both the sides, major part relates to two legal submissions: a) Admissibility and reliability of the dying declaration made by Sonu @ Savita before the Investigating officer. b) Whether death sentence insofar as Atbir and life sentence insofar as Ashok is warranted. (A) "Dying Declaration". It is true that in the case on hand, conviction under Section 302 was based solely on the dying declaration made by Sonu @ Savita and recorded by Investigating Officer in the presence of a Doctor. Since we have already narrated the case of prosecution which led to three deaths, eliminating the second wife and the children of one Jaswant Singh, there is no need to traverse the same once again. This Court in a series of decisions enumerated and analyzed that while recording the dying declaration, factors such as mental condition of the maker, alertness of mind and memory, evidentiary value etc. have to be taken into account. 9. In Munnu Raja and Anr. v. The State of Madhya Pradesh (1976) 3 SCC 104, this Court held: ...It is well settled that though a dying declaration must be approached ....
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....r held that the statement of the injured, in event of her death may also be treated as FIR. 12. In State of Rajasthan v. Wakteng (2007) 14 SCC 550, the view in Balbir Singh's case (supra) has been reiterated. The following conclusions are relevant which read as under: 14. Though conviction can be based solely on the dying declaration, without any corroboration the same should not be suffering from any infirmity. 15. While great solemnity and sanctity is attached to the words of a dying man because a person on the verge of death is not likely to tell lie or to concoct a case so as to implicate an innocent person but the court has to be careful to ensure that the statement was not the result of either tutoring, prompting or a product of the imagination. It is, therefore, essential that the court must be satisfied that the deceased was in a fit state of mind to make the statement, had clear capacity to observe and identify the assailant and that he was making the statement without any influence or rancour. Once the court is satisfied that the dying declaration is true and voluntary it is sufficient for the purpose of conviction. 13. In Bijoy Das v. State of....
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....rt. (ii) The Court should be satisfied that the deceased was in a fit state of mind at the time of making the statement and that it was not the result of tutoring, prompting or imagination. (iii) Where the Court is satisfied that the declaration is true and voluntary, it can base its conviction without any further corroboration. (iv) It cannot be laid down as an absolute rule of law that the dying declaration cannot form the sole basis of conviction unless it is corroborated. The rule requiring corroboration is merely a rule of prudence. (v) Where dying declaration is suspicious, it should not be acted upon without corroborative evidence. (vi) A dying declaration which suffers from infirmity such as the deceased was unconscious and could never make any statement cannot form the basis of conviction. (vii) Merely because a dying declaration does not contain all the details as to the occurrence, it is not to be rejected. (viii) Even if it is a brief statement, it is not to be discarded. (ix) When the eye-witness affirms that the deceased was not in a fit and conscious state to make the dying declaration, medical o....
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....ial Judge as well as the High Court found that there is total clarity in its contents and it is not a case where the deceased was either rambling, unsure or had contradicted herself. We have already adverted to the several decisions of this Court holding that there is no compulsion that all dying declarations have to be made before the Magistrate. In the case on hand, the incident occurred on 22.01.1996 at 2.30 p.m., the injured Sonu @ Savita was admitted in the hospital at 3.30 p.m. and she made declaration at 4.05 p.m. on the same day. It is also relevant to note that immediately after recording her statement, doctor referred her to Emergency Ward to save her life. However, she died on 24.01.1996 at 12.30 p.m. The Inspector who recorded the statement was cross-examined and the details and his evidence was not shattered by the defence, in fact, not even a suggestion to the Investigation Officer about the availability of Magistrate at the relevant point of time. Since the statement of Sonu @ Savita was very brief as to the circumstances and persons involved who caused brutal injuries on her body as well as her mother and brother, in addition to the same, Dr. Sharat Chandra has also....
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....tial cut in the carotid artery the blood supply to the brain will be reduced. Que: Whether this reduced blood supply to the brain will adversely affect the functioning of the brain and will induce coma? Ans. It will depend upon the amount of blood oozing out of cut in common carotid artery. I have not given the dimension of the cut in the common carotid artery as described. The bigger the size of the cut in the artery it will speed up the process of affecting the brain function. It is clear that according to PW-9, right carotid was partially cut. Trachea was patent and other neck structures were intact. He has reiterated the same in cross-examination also. Inasmuch as the injury on the carotid was partial coupled with opinion of Dr. Sharat Chandra PW-30, it cannot be claimed that she was fully disabled from making any statement. 20. Dr. (Mrs.) Ruma Jain, PW-26, attached to Hindu Rao Hospital as CMO, on the date of the incident i.e. on 22.01.1996, in her evidence deposed that on that day at about 3.30 PM Savita was brought by ASI Shanti. She medically examined her. Though she found her general condition was not satisfactory she had stated that she wa....
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....at that time Ms. Sonu was also there and then I signed this statement by giving my endorsement. It is correct that I did not mention in my endorsement Ex. PQ 30/A that Insp. Chauhan read over this statement. To me and Ms. Sonu. During this time, Ms. Sonu was in surgical emergency ward. Patient had stab injuries and the injuries were pleading profusely. PW-30 also asserted that immediately after her statement, Sonu was taken to surgical emergency ward, since she had stab injuries and was bleeding profusely. It was in evidence that she was continuously in the emergency ward and ultimately died on 24.01.1996 at 12.30 PM. This was the reason that because of her critical position after admission and making her statement, the Magistrate could not be secured to record her statement. 22. The evidence of PW-26 and PW-30, who had treated Sonu, indicate that immediately after admission in the hospital at 3.30 PM on 22.01.1996 and at the time of making statement at 4.05 PM she was in a fit condition. It is also clear that immediately after her statement because of the injuries she was taken to emergency ward and she was kept therein till her death on 24.01.1996. It is also clear that in ....
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....uence of anything done or attempted to be done by such member or public servant in the lawful discharge of his duty as such member or public servant whether at the time of murder he was such member or public servant, as the case may be, or had ceased to be such member or public servant; or (d) If the murder is of a person who had acted in the lawful discharge of his duty under Section 43 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, or who had rendered assistance to a Magistrate or a police officer after demanding his aid or requiring his assistance under Section 37 and Section 129 of the said Code. "Mitigating Circumstances" (1) That the offence was committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance. (2) The age of the accused. If the accused is young or old, he shall not be sentenced to death. (3) The probability that the accused would not commit criminal acts of violence as would constitute a continuing threat to society. (4) The probability that the accused can be reformed and rehabilitated. The State shall by evidence prove that the accused does not satisfy the conditions (3) and (4) above. (5) ....
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....anti-social or abhorrent nature of the crime, such as for instance: I. Manner of commission of murder 33. When the murder is committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community. For instance, (i) when the house of the victim is set aflame with the end in view to roast him alive in the house; (ii) when the victim is subjected to inhuman acts of torture or cruelty in order to bring about his or her death; (iii) when the body of the victim is cut into pieces or his body is dismembered in a fiendish manner; II. Motive for commission of murder 34. When the murder is committed for a motive which evinces total depravity and meanness. For instance when (a) a hired assassin commits murder for the sake of money or reward (b) a cold-blooded murder is committed with a deliberate design in order to inherit property or to gain control over property of a ward or a person under the control of the murderer or vis-�-vis whom the' murderer is in a dominating position or in a position of trust, or (c) a murder is com....
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....imposed only when life imprisonment appears to be an altogether inadequate punishment having regard to the relevant circumstances of the crime, and provided, and only provided, the option to impose sentence of imprisonment for life cannot be conscientiously exercised having regard to the nature and circumstances of the crime and all the relevant circumstances. (iv) A balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances has to be drawn up and in doing so the mitigating circumstances have to be accorded full weightage and a just balance has to be struck between the aggravating and the mitigating circumstances before the option is exercised. In order to apply these guidelines, inter alia, the following questions may be asked and answered: (a) Is there something uncommon about the crime which renders sentence of imprisonment for life inadequate and calls for a death sentence? (b) Are the circumstances of the crime such that there is no alternative but to impose death sentence even after according maximum weightage to the mitigating circumstances which speak in favour of the offender? If upon taking an overall global view of all the circumstances in....
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....urt, this could provide a strong motive to the accused persons for committing the crime. 28. As argued before the Courts below, learned Counsel for the appellant has raised a similar contention stating that Atbir was a young man of 25 years and already spent ten years in jail, that itself is a sufficient punishment for the crime. He also highlighted that he had no past history of any crime and it cannot be claimed that it is impossible to change his state of mind in the future. He also pointed out that Atbir's main aim was to grab the property of his father immediately that too without giving a share to anyone. By pointing out these mitigating circumstances and the legal principles as formulated in Bachan Singh's case and Machhi Singh's case, prayed for leniency and according to him, punishment of death sentence is not warranted. 29. It is relevant to mention that Jaswant Singh, father of Atbir deserted his first wife and their children in 1971. Atbir and his brother Satbir had some grievance about their father for deserting their mother and living with Sheela Devi - second wife and her children. Apart from the same, Atbir demanded land and house property and mone....
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....ioned the fact that Atbir inflicted 37 knife blows which resulted in the death of three persons. 33. After analyzing all the relevant materials let in by the prosecution and in the light of the well established principles including aggravating and mitigating circumstances as laid by the Constitution Bench in Bachan Singh's case (supra) and explained in Machhi Singh's case (supra), we conclude the murders committed by Atbir is extremely brutal and diabolical one. The cold blooded murder is committed with deliberate design in order to inherit the entire property of Jaswant Singh without waiting for his death. The magnitude of the crime is also enormous in proportion since Atbir, with the assistance of his mother and brother, committed multiple murders of all the members of the family. Apart from this, the victims are none else than his step-mother, brother and sister. The victims are innocent who could not have or has not provided even an excuse much less a provocation for murder. Further, the victims were unaware of the sudden entry of Atbir and others and after bolting the door from inside, they have no other way to go out or resist except subjecting themselves to the wi....