P&H High Court Enhances Fine In Double Murder Case To ₹2 Lakhs, Says There Should Be No Disparity Of Amount Between Co-Convicts

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has upheld the conviction in a double murder case of four convicts, observing that the fine of Rs.50,000 imposed on one convict was "extremely minimal" and there should not be a disparity of fine amount among co-convicts.Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Kuldeep Tiwari said, "the imposition of the fine amount of Rs.50,000/- upon the convict...Gurdev Singh under Section 302/149 IPC is extremely minimal, and, is required to be enhanced, as the fine amount is required to be on its realization disbursed to the family members of the deceased, besides therebys there would be no disparity with the fine amounts, as became imposed upon other co-convicts."The bench enhanced the fine amount to Rs 2 lakh to, at par with the other co-convicts.The Court was hearing the appeal of four convicts, who were convicted for murdering a father-son duo and attempting to murder another under Sections 302, 307, 324, 201, 148, 149 of the IPC, and under Sections 25, 27 of the Arms Act. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment except one Gurdev Singh who was sentenced for rigorous imprisonment for ten years.The scuffle took place over a land dispute, wherein the accused persons had objection that the possession of land belonged to the deceased persons. Gun shots were fired by the accused persons and a father-son died and one more was severely injured. The entire incident was witnesses by the injured person who lodged the complaint.After examining the submissions, the Court took note of the the report of the doctors concerned, who proved the apposite MLRs of the injured eye witnesses, and post-mortems report of the deceased concerned, along with the efficaciously proven signatured disclosure statements as made by the convict-appellant.It further noted that the recovery memos corroborated the ocular account of the witness and it was further supported by the report of the the ballistic expert.Consequently, it opined that "no gross perversity or absurdity in the appreciation of the adduced relevant evidence, as became made by the learned trial Judge concerned."However, the Court rejected the plea to award capital punishment in the case, stating that the case does not belong to the category of the rarest of the rare case.While disposing of the plea, the Court enhanced the fine imposed on convict Gurdev Singh to Rs. 2,00,000 at par with other co-convicts.Mr.VirenSibal,legalaidcounseland Mr. Harinder Singh, Advocate for Mr. Satwant Mehta, Advocate in CRA-D-845-2022 for the appellant(s).Mr. Vivek K.Thakur, Advocate for the appellant in CRA-D-722-2022 and respondent No. 2 (in CRA-AD-311-2022).Mr. Sunny Saggar, Advocate for the appellant (in CRA-D-962-2022).Mr. Anas Ahmed, Advocate for the appellant (in CRA-AD-311-2022).Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. DAG, Punjab. Title: Anoop Singh and Another v. State of Punjab [along with connected matter]Click here to read/download the order

P&H High Court Enhances Fine In Double Murder Case To ₹2 Lakhs, Says There Should Be No Disparity Of Amount Between Co-Convicts

Aiman J. Chishti

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