HC raps lower court,sets aside acquittal of murder accused

The directions were issued on a petition filed by one Guraditta Singh alias Gurdit Singh demanding revision of a judgment dated October 7,1993,passed by ADJ,Faridkot,acquitting Harbans Singh in an FIR registered on charges of murder at Faridkot on July 15,1991. Harbans was accused of murdering Sukhdev Singh,son of Guraditta Singh. Along with Harbans,there were some co-accused too,but they were declared proclaimed offenders. Only Harbans Singh was chargesheeted.

According to the prosecution,house of Guraditta was set on fire by alleged extremists Pritam Singh and Bhajan Singh about 6 to 7 years prior to lodging of the FIR. Guraditta along with his two sons Sukhdev and Baldev Singh,shifted to another village,Kingre,to live with his daughter Kapoor Kaur,whose husband had also been murdered by extremists.

It was alleged that Harbans Singh and some other extremists thought that Guraditta was a police informer as a result of which they shot dead his son,Sukhdev Singh. “After killing my son,the murderers raised slogans of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’,” the complainant alleged.

The trial court discarded the statements of Guraditta and his daughter who were the eyewitnesses of the murder. Justice L N Mittal took strong note of this and observed that their statements should not have been discarded.

“Merely on the ground of the relationship of the eyewitnesses,the two cannot be termed as ‘interested witnesses’. In fact,in those days of terrorist violence in Punjab,no independent witness could gather courage to depose against any terrorist facing trial,” Justice Mittal held.