HC reverses life sentences to three in 24-year-old murder case

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today set aside the life sentences awarded to three convicts in a 24-year- old murder case.

Reversing the trial court's verdict, the Division Bench headed by Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin accepted prime accused Piara Singh's claim that he had not been arrested from the scene of the crime as claimed by the prosecution.

''We are of the view that the plea of alibi taken by Piara Singh stood established from the prosecution evidence itself and the trial court findings cannot be sustained,'' the Bench said while aquitting Piara Singh, his brother Kewal and co-accused Resham Singh.

The prosecution's argument that Singh was arrested from Dasayu village in Punjab for committing a murder on April 22, 1983 failed to pass muster.

Ironically, a CFSL report furnished by the prosecution to bolster its case proved to be more helpful for the defence.

The court said, '' The trial court had relied on the CFSL report which says that some pages in the daily diary register of April 1983, including the one containing the entry of the arrest of Singh, were different from the other pages and appeared to have been inserted after tearing off the original pages.'' ''The trial court, however, has not returned any findings as to who had changed the pages of the register and the prosecution had also not produced any evidence to show as to who was the custodian of that register,'' the court observed, terming the entry recording the arrest of Singh in the register ''false''.

The trio were awarded life imprisonment eight years ago for allegedly murdering Gurdhian Singh in Delhi on the intervening night of April 22 and 23, 1983 .

UNI