After 8 yrs, man acquitted in grandson’s murder case

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 18

Eight years after a maternal grandfather was convicted and sentenced to life for murdering his one-and-a-half-year-old grandson, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has reversed the trial court’s judgment. The FIR in the matter was registered on a complaint by the daughter of the accused. But she was declared hostile during the trial.

Allowing the appeal filed by Mohinder Singh against the judgment of his conviction and sentence by Moga Additional Sessions Judge in January 2011, the Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu asserted the trial court erred in law and facts while convicting the appellant.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Sharma added the prosecution failed to prove its case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the appeal was allowed and the appellant was acquitted of the charge framed against him. “The appellant be released forthwith,” Justice Sharma added

The prosecution’s case was that complainant Charanjit Kaur was residing with her father, a drunkard, who would demand money from her. The complainant, on the fateful day in November 2009 had gone out of her house to see Gurmail Kaur. When she came back, she found her son killed.

In an attempt to establish the allegations against the accused, the prosecution examined 10 witnesses in support of its case. The accused, on the other hand, denied the prosecution case while alleging implication.

Justice Sharma asserted Gurmail did not support the prosecution’s case and was declared hostile. Similarly, Charanjit Kaur, declared hostile, also deposed that her signatures were obtained by the police on blank papers. She denied the suggestion that she resiled from her statement after being won over by the accused.

The victim’s father and the complainant’s husband Jaswinder Singh was also declared hostile. He, too, had stated that his wife’s signatures were obtained on a blank paper. Describing his father-in-law as a good man, Jaswinder Singh the appellant used to take liquor occasionally.