ARJUN AND ORS.versusSTATE OF RAJASTHAN

A                               ARJUN AND ORS.
                                          v.
                             STATE OF RNASTHAN

                                   JULY 14, 1994

B                [DR. AS. ANAND AND FAIZAN UDDIN, JJ.]

         Indian Penal Code, 1860--Section 30'J.-Murdei-£nmity-Relation
    Witness-Acceptability of.

C        Eye witnesses--Four accused acquitted giving benefit of doubt-
    Whether consistent evidence of eye witnesses is liable to be rejected since they
    have been disbelieved with regard to panicipation of four acquitted ac-
    cused-Maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus-Whether applicable.

         Constitution of India, 1950: An. 136--Appreciation of evidence-Con-
D   cu"ent view taken by couns below-Nonnally not inteifered with.

         The four appellants were charged and tried alongwith four other
    accused under Sections 302 and 148 read with Section 149 of the I.P.C.

          According to the prosecution, the four appellants were armed with
E   farsas and Ballam while the rest of the four acquitted accused were said
    to be armed with Iathies. All the accused assaulted the deceased with the
    weapons they were armed with. When the assault was opened on deceased
    he raised hue and cry inviting the attention of PW.3 PW 2, PW 4 and PW
    7, who had just come out of the Panchayat Bhawan after the meeting. They
    all rushed to the place of occurrence to rescue the deceased. The victim
F   died on the way while being taken to the hospital.

         The Trial Judge gave the benefit of doubt to four co-accused and
    acquitted them. The Trial Court found no case against any of the appel-
    lants under Section 148. However, on evaluation, prosecution evidence was
G   found reliable and consistent so far as the four appellants were concerned
    and therefore, they were held guilty under Section 302 I.P.C. for murder
    of the deceased and each one of them was sentenced to undergo life
    imprisonment. The conviction and sentence had been further affirmed by
    the High Court.

H         In this appeal the appellants contended that there was long standing
                                          616
                                  ARJUN v. STATE                                617

     enmity between the complainant and the appellants. It was also submitted          A
     that prosecution witnesses were close relatives of the deceased victim; and
     that since the same eye witnesses have been disbelieved with regard to the
     participation of the four acquitted accused and, therefore, their evidence
     should not be accepted to convict the appellants also.

           Dismissing the appeal, this Court                                           B

            HELD : 1.L Enmity .is a double edged sword with can cut both ways.
     However, the fact remains that whether the prosecution witnesses are close
     relatives of the deceased victim or on enemical terms with the deceased
     involved in the crime of murder, the witnesses are always interested to see       C
     that the real offenders of the crime are booked and they are not, in any
     case, expected to leave out the real culprits and rope in the innocent
     persons simply because of the enmity. It is, therefore, not a safe rule to
     reject their testimony merely on the ground that the complainant and the
     accused persons were on enemical terms. Similarly the evidence could not
     be rejected merely on the basis of relationship of the witnesses with the         D
     deceased. In such a situation it only puts the court with the solemn duty
     to make a deeper probe and scrutinize the evidence with more than
     ordinary care which precaution' has already been taken by the two courts
     below while analysing and accepting the evidence. [621·D·E·F·G]
                                                                                       E
           1.2. The evidence of eye-witnesses finds corroborations from the medi·
     cal evidence. The injuries found on the person of the deceased tally with the
     ocular version of all these eye witnesses. In view of these facts and cir·
     cumstances there is no reason whatsoever to differ from the concurrent view
     taken by the two courts below as the evidence on the basis of which the
     conviction of these four appellants is founded is fully reliable and trust-war·   F
     thy and hence no other view is possible than the one already taken by the
     Trial Court and the High Court. Normally this Court does not appraise the
     evidence for itself under Article 136 of the Constitution. The c011clusion of
     High Court on question of fact on appreciation of evidence is considered to
     be final, yet this court has scrutinised the evidence to satisfy itself to see    G
     whether there is any infirmity in the conclusions recorded by the High Court
     and there is no cause for any interference. (623-G·H; 624-A·B·C]

•,         1.3. The four acquitted accused were given benefit of doubt with
     regard to their participation in the incident on the ground that both in the
     F.I.R. and in their police statement made under Section 161, Cr. P.C. no H
     618                    SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1994] SUPP. 1 S.C.R.

A    disclosure about the actual beating by the four acquitted accused was made
     by the prosecution witnesses. That being so, the Trial Court as well as the
     High Court were justified in giving the benefit of doubt to the four acquitted
     accused. But it does not mean that evidence of the witnesses is liable to be
     rejected merely on the ground that their evidence has not been accepted with
     regard to the four acquitted accused. It is well settled that maximum fa/sus
B    in uno, fa/sus in omnibus, that is to say, false in one thing false in everything
     is neither a sound rule of law nor a rule of practice. In such a circumstance
     the court has to analyse the prosecution evidence carefully and on such
     analysis If the evidence Is found to be consistent and reliable the court can
     accept the same with regard to the other accused persons and hold them
c    guilty, even though the court is unable to rely fully on the prosecution
     evidence with regard to some of the accused persons. [625-C-D-E]

           CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No.
     207 of 1993.
ID        From the Judgment and Order dated 3.7.92 of the Rajasthan High
     Court in D.B.. Cr!. A. No. 285 of 1990.

          Hardev Singh, Sushi! Kumar and Ms. Madhu Moolchandani for the
     Appellants.

E          Aruneshwar Gupta and K.S. Bhati for the Respondent.

           The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

           FAIZAN UDDIN, J. 1. This appeal by special leave of this Court has
     been directed against the judgment of the High Court of Rajasthan passed
F    in Criminal Appeal No. 285/90 affirming the conviction of the four appel-
     lants for an offence under Section 302, I.P.C. by the Additional Sessions
     Judge, Deeg in Sessions Case No. 8/89; imposing sentence of life imprison-
     ment on all the four appellants (herein).

G          2. The four appellants, namely, Arjun, Rampa!, Bhagwan Singh and
     Mukhoram were charged and tried alongwith four other acquitted accused,
     namely, Nathu, Pannalal, Damodarlal and Badely under Sections 302 and
     148 read with Section 149 of the l.P.C.

           3. The prosecution case was that on 27.11.88 at about 11 AM when
 H   the deceased Jyoti Ram followed by his brother Bohari PW 1, was going
                   ARJUN v. STATE [FAIZAN UDDIN, J.]                    619

frc,m his village Baroli Dhau to an adjoining village Pasopa to purchase A
water pipe, he was way laid and surrounded by the appellants and four
other co-accused who emerged from mustard field. The appellants
Bhagawan Sahai, Rampal and Arjun were armed with Farsas and the
appellant Mukho Ram was armed with Ballam while the rest of the four
acquitted accused are said to be armed with lathies. It is said that the B
appellant Arjun exhorted the other accused persons to kill Jyoti Ram then
all assaulted Jyoti Ram with the weapons they were armed with. When the
assault was opened on Jyoti Ram he raised hue and. cry inviting the
attention of Puran, PW 3 who was ·present in the nearby field and
Bhagawan Sahai, PW 2, Harish Chandra, PW 4, Sat Pal Singh, PW 7 who
had just come out of the Panchayat Bhavan after the meeting. They all C
rushed to the place of occurrence to rescue Jyoti Ram. The appellant and
the other four acquitted accused on seeing the villagers and witnesses
approaching the place of occurrence made their escape good,

        4. A written report Ext. PS was lodged same day at about 12.40 PM
  by Sat Pal Singh, PW 7, the son of the victim in the Police Staiion, Karna   D
  about 13 km. away from the place of occurrence on the basis of which First
  Information Report Ext. P9 was recorded by Rup Narayan, PW il, the
, Station House Officer, Kama.                                         ·

       5. The victim Jyoti Ram died on the way while he was being taken E
 in the tractor of Ram Dhan, PW 6 to Karna hospital. The police alsq
 arrived in the hospital alongwith the informant, Sat Pal, PW 7. In· the
 hospital inquest report, Ext.2 was prepared. The blood stained cloti1es of
 the deceased Jyoti Ram were seized by the police by seizure ·memo Ext.
 P7. Simple and blood stained earth was also seized from the place of
 occurrence as per seizure memo Ext. PS.                                    F

       6. Dr. Mangat Ram, PW 8 performed an autopsy over the dead body
of Jyoti Ram in Government Hospital, Karna on 27.11.88 itself at 4 PM. As
per post-niortem report Ext. P.17 Dr. Mangal Ram found the following
injuries on the person of the deceased :                   ·          ·        G

       (1) Incised wound 4"x l"x Bone deep on right parietal region.

       (2) incis:d wound 3''lc l"x Bone deep on left parietal region.

      (3) Oediarnation - Ecling mossis over right eye diffused area.           H
    620                   SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994] SUPP. 1 S.C.R.

A   /     (4) Incised wound l"x 1/2"x 1/4" on middle part of the right ear.
    The afore-mentioned injuries were caused by sharp weapon.

          (5) Stab wounds five in nu!llber - all on the right side of the face,
    near right side of the face, n~ar }ar., All these stab wound in the opinion
B   of the <loci.or. were 'caused by sharp weapon and may be inflicted by lance
    (Ballam).

           (6) Stab wound 1/2" x 1/2" x l" at right side of occipital region behind
    the right ear caused by sharp weapon.

C         (7) Abrasion 1" x 1/2" at right shoulder.

          (8) Lacerated wound with fracture of 5th wetacarpal bone right hand.

          7. Injuries No. 7 and 8 described above were caused by blunt weapon.
    The doctor also found congestion in the scalp and skull bones. Membrane
D   was ruptured both over left and right parietal area and right temporal area
    was also ruptured. He also found brain harnmeorhage. In the opinion of
    Doctor Mangal Singh Injury No. 1 and 2 independently was sufficient to
    cause death in the ordinary course of nature and the cause of death was
    due to ·brain hammeorhage and shock.
E          8. The accused Darnodar and Panna took the plea of alibi and stated
     that on the relevant date and time both of them were at Delhi and that
     they were falsely implicated. The remaining accused also adjured their guilt
    ·and pleaded false implication due to enmity. The learned Trial Judge after
     analysing the prosecution evidence on record found that there were some
F    exaggeration in the prosecution evidence with regard to the accused
     Damodar and Panna as compared to their statements recorded under
     Section 161 Cr. P.C. and, therefore, giving the benefit of doubt recorded
     their acquittal. The Trial Judge gave the benefit of doubt to the other two
     co-accused, namely, Nathu and Badley and, therefore, acquitted them also.
G    The Trial Court found no case against any of the appellants under Section
     148. However, learned Trial Judge on evaluation of the prosecution
     evidence found it to be reliable and consistent so far as the four appellants
     before us are concerned and, therefore, held them guilty under Section 302
     of the Penal Code for murder of Jyoti Ram and sentenced to each one of
     them to undergo life imprisonment. The said conviction and sentence has
H    been further affirmed by the High Court of Rajasthan, Jaipur Bench
                 ARJUNv. STATE[FAIZANUDDIN,J.j                            621

against which this appeal by grant of special leave has been preferred.         A

       9. Learned counsel for the appellants first contended that there was
long standing enmity between the complainant and some of the witnesses
on one hand and the appellants on the other and some criminal proceed-
ings between them were going on when the alleged incident took place and
hence it was due to this enmity that the appellants were falsely implicated.
                                                                             B
It was also submitted that Bahori, PW 1 and Sat Pal Singh, PW 7 are dose
relatives of the deceased and other prosecution witnesses are also dose
associates and, therefore, there is possibility of false implication of the
appellants in the crime in question. It is an admitted fact that the com-
plainant and the appellants were on enemical terms and some criminal            c
proceedings were pending between them even at the time when the occur-
rence took place. It is equally true that Bahori, PW 1 is the brother of the
deceased and informant Sat Pal Singh, PW 7 is the son of the deceased.
But we are not convinced by the aforesaid arguments that either on account
of animosity or on account of relationship they did not divulge the truth D
but fabricated a false case against the appellants. It is needless to em-
phasise that enmity is a double edged sword which can cut both ways.
However, the fact remains that whether the prosecution witnesses are dose
relatives of the deceased victim or on ei:temical terms with the deceased
involved in the crime of murder, the witnesses are always interested to see
that the real offenders of the crime are booked and they are not, in any        E
case, expected to leave out the real culprits and rope in the innocent
persons simply because of the enmity. It is, therefore, not a safe rule to
reject their testimony merely on the ground that the complainant and the
accused persons were on enemical terms. Similarly the evidence could not
be rejected merely on the basis of relationship of the witnesses with the       F
deceased. In such a situation it only puts the Court with the solemn duty
to make a deeper probe and scrutinize the evidence with more than
ordinary care which precaution has already been taken by the two courts
below while analysing and accepting the evidence.

       10. Learned counsel for the appellants next submitted that Bahori, G
PW 1 was taking his meals when the deceased Jyoti Ram had already left
for village Pasopa and, therefore, he could riot have seen the occurrence
which took place at the outskirts of the village. He reached the place of
occurrence only after the incident was over. As regard the other prosecu-
tion witnesses, namely, Bhagwan Sahai, PW 2, Harish Chandra, PW 4 and H
    622                  SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994] SUPP. 1 S.C.R.

A Sat Pal Singh, PW 7 it was submitted that they could not have seen the
    occurrence as they were busy in Panchayat meeting inside Panchayat
    Bhawan as deposed by defence witnesses, Kishan Singh, DW 1 and Kishore
    Kumar Sharma, DW 2 who were also present in the said meeting which
    continued upto 12 noon while the incident is said to have occurred at about
    11 AM. Regarding the other eye-\\itness PW 3 it was argued that he is
B   only a chance witness and on these premises it was vehemently urged that
    the two Courts below committed an error in placing reliance on their
    testimony. But on a close scrutiny and analysis of the evidence of all the
    witnesses referred to above we find that the arguments are without any
    merit.
c
           11. Bahori, PW 1 the brother of the deceased Jyoti clearly deposed
    that Jyoti came to his house while he was taking meals and told to
    accompany him to village Pasopa where he was going to purchase pipe and,
    therefore, he after taking his meals followed his brother. His brother Jyoti
D   was going about 40-50 ft. ahead of him. He further stated that the four
    appellants as well as the four acquitted accused were hiding in a mustard
    field and all emerged and surrounded Jyoti as soon as he reached near {he
    field. On exhortation by the appellant Arjun, an assault was opened on the
    deceased. Arjun attacked Jyoti with pick-axe on the right side of hand, the
    appellant Ram Pal also gave blow on the left side of the head by the
E   pick-axe and thereafter the appellant Mukho gave lance blow on the back
    of Jyoti's head and when Jyoti fell down the appellant Bhagwan Sahai
    attacked Jyoti with pick-axe on right side of his cheek. Appellant Mukho
    also gave lance blows on the right cheek and the acquitted accused persons
    assaulted him by lathies. He goes on to state that on receiving the assaults
p   there was an uproar as Jyoti raised hue and cry attracting Bhagwan Sahai,
    PW 3, Harish Chandra, PW 4 and Sat Pal Singh, PW 7 who arrived at the
    place of occurrence whereafter the appellants made their escape good
    towards the village Jhajhul. According to the evidence of Bhagwan Sahai,
    PW 2, Harish Chandra, PW 4 and Sat Pal, PW 7 they all had gone in a
G   meeting of Young Union Association held at 10.30 AM in Panchayat
    Bhawan of the Village where oath ceremony of the new members of the
    Association had taken place on 27.11.88 and as soon as the meeting was
    over at about 11 AM they came out of Panchayat Bhawan. As soon as they
    came out from Panchayat Bhawan, they heard uproar and cries of deceased
    Jyoti and Bahori, PW 1 from the out-skirt of the village. These three
H   witnesses, therefore, rushed towards the place of occurrence at a distance
                 ARJUNv. STATE[FAIZANUDDIN,J.]                         623

 of about 300 ft. away from the Panchayat Bhawan. At the out-skirt of village A
 Pasopa they saw from a close range the present four appellants armed with
 pick axes, lance and acquitted accused armed with lathies. All the three
·witnesses have fully corroborated the statement of Bahori, PW 1, with
 regard to the weapons they were armed with and the individual assaults
 made by the appellants on the deceased. Their statement is fully consistent B
 and nothing could be elicited from them so as to doubt their testimony.
 Minor omissions and contradictions which h~ve been brought about in their
 evidence relate only to the details of assault alleged to have been made by
 the four acquitted accused. The, four accused have already been given
 benefit of doubt and acquitted of the offence charged with by the learned
 Trial Judge and upheld by the High Court. The presence of these three C
 witnesses at the Panchayat Bhawan since 10.30 AM on 27.11.88 has been
 admitted even by the defence witnesses.

       12. According to the evidence of Puran, PW 3 he had taken the land
of one Pt. Ram Saroop situated near out-skirt of the village, and had         D
cultivated the same himself. He deposed that on the date and time of the
occurrence when he was in his field he heard the uproar and cries of
deceased Jyoti and Bahori, PW 1 and when he rushed towards the cries
near his field he saw that the witnesses Bhagwan Sahai, PW 2, Harish
Chandra, PW 4 and Sat Pal, PW 7 were also running towards the place of
occurrence. He saw that the deceased was surrounded by the four appel-        E
!ants as well as the four acquitted accused. The appellant Arjun, Ram Pal
and Bhagwan Sahai were armed with pick-axes while 4th appellant Mukho
was armed with a lance and the acquitted accused were having lathies
According to Puran PW 3, the appellant Arjun first gave a pick-axe blow
on the right side of Jyoti's head, appellant Ram Pal attacked on. the right    F
side of the head, Mukho gave a blow with lance at the back side of the
head as result of which Jyoti fell on the ground. Thereafter the appellant
Bhagwan Sahai gave blows of pick-axe on his right cheek and the appellant
Mukho also gave lance blow on his right cheek. Puran is totally an inde-
pendent witness. His presence in the field near the pl~ce of occurrence was   ,,.,
quite natural as according to him the crop was standing in the fieh' \
cultivated by him. The evidence of these eye-witnesses, PW 1, PW 2, P\'.
3, PW 4 and PW 7 further finds corroboration from the medical evidenc:
of Dr. Mangal, PW 8 as already discussed earlier. The injuries found '"'
the person of the deceased tally with the ocular version of all these eye
witnesses which further lend assurance and support to the prosecution H
    624                   SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994] SUPP. l S.C.R.

A case. In view of these facts and circumstances we find no reason whatsoever
    to differ from the concurrent view taken by the two Courts below as the
    evidence on the basis of which the conviction of these four appellants is
    founded is fully reliable and trust-worthy and hence no other view is
    possible than the one already taken by the Trial Court and the High Court.
    Normally Supreme Court does not appraise the c'1dence for itself under
B
    Article 136 of the Constitution. The conclusion of High Court on question
    of fact on appreciation of evidence is considered to be final, yet we have
    scruitinised the evidence to satisfy ourselves to see whether there is any
    infirmity in the conclusions recorded by the High Court and we find that
    there is no cause for any interference.
c
           13.. As regards the defence evidence we find that both Kishan Singh
    DW 1 and Kishore Kumar Sharma, DW 2 are false witnesses and did not
    make a truthful statement of the incident. Kishan Singh, DW 1 at the
    relevant time was the secretary of the Young Group Association of the
D   village. He deposed that the first meeting was held on 21.11.88 when oath
    was given to some of its members but the members Bhagwan Sahai, PW 2
    and Harish Chandra, PW 4 were not present in that meeting. He admitted
    that Sat Pal PW 7, was the Vice-President of the Association. He further
    stated that second meeting was held on 27.11.88, the day of occurrence in
    the Panchayat Bhawan in which the new members Bhagwan Sahai, PW 2,
E   Harish Chandra, PW 4 and others were present. According to him the
    meeting commenced at 10.30 and continued till J.2 noon during which
    period the new members had taken oath while according to the prosecution
    witness the meeting had ended at 11 AM. Kishan Singh, DW 1 deposed
    that after the meeting was over there was no uproar nor any. hue and cry
    of Jyoti Ram was heard. According to him no incident at all as alleged by
F   the prosecution occurred on the date and time alleged by the prosecution.
    He produced the Meeting Register, Ext. 06 in which the time of commen-
    cement of the meeting is recorded as 10.30 which ended at 12 noon. Similar
    is the statement of Kishore Kumar Sharma, DW 2 who was the President
    of the said Association. Their evidence is totally falsified by the overwhelm-
G   ing evidence discussed by us earlier. The time of commencement of the
    meeting mentioned in the register has also been found to be fabricated by
    the trial Court as no mention of the time is made in respect of any other
    meetings in the said register. Even otherwise the evidence of these two
    witnesses appears to be wholly untruthful because according to these two
    defence witnesses oath had to be offered only to three-four new members
H   which would not have consumed time right from 10.30 to 12 noon. In any
                  ARJUN v. STATE [FAIZAN UDDTN, J.]                     625

case the meetings must have ended within 10 to 15 minutes and in any case      A
before 11 AM. But these two witnesses even go to the extent of denying
the happening of the incident altogether. Having regard to all these facts
and circumstances we reject the submissions made by the learned counsel
for the appellants challenging the credibility of the prosecution witnesses.

        14. Learned counsel for the appellants lastly urged that since the B
 same eye-witnesses have been disbelieved with regard to the participation
 of the four acquitted accused and, therefore, their evidence should not be
 accepted to convict the present four appellants also. In this connection it
 may be noticed that the four acquitted accused were given benefit of doubt
 with regard to their participation in the incident on the ground that both
 in the F.l.R. Ext. PS and in their police statement made under Section 161,   c
 Cr.P.C. no disclosure about the actual beating by the four acquitted ac-
 cused was made by the prosecution witnesses. That being so, in our
opinion, the Trial Court as well as the High Court were justified in giving
the benefit of doubt to the four acquitted accused. But it does not mean
that the consistent evidence of the five eye-witnesses is liable to be rejected D
merely on the ground that their evidence has not been accepted with regard
to the four acquitted accused. It is well settled that maxim fa/sus in uno,
fa/sus in omnibus, that is to say, false in one thing, false in everything is
neither a sound rule of law nor a rule of practice. In such a circumstance
the court has to analyse the prosecution evidence carefully and on such
analysis if the evidence is found to be consistent and reliable the Court can E
accept the same with regard to the other accused persons and hold them
guilty, even though the Court is unable to rely fully on the prosecution
evidence with regard to some of the accused persons. In the present case ·
as we have seen either the two Courts below have examined the evidence
of"the five eye-witnesses very closely and having found their statement
wholly consistent with regard to the participation and assault made by the F
four appellants on the deceased resulting into his death, have accepted the
same to be fully truthful. We too have minutely examined the said evidence
and find ourselves in agreement with the view taken by the Courts below.

      15. There being no cause for any interference the appeal deserves to     G
be dismissed. In the result the appeal fails and is dismissed.

A.G.                                                    Appeal dismissed.



                                                                               H