HIGH COURT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR AT JAMMU. 561-A No. 123 OF 2008 Devinder Kour and ors. Petitioners State and ors. Respondent !Mr. Virender Bhat, Advocate. ^Mr. P.N.Goja, Advocate. MR. JUSTICE J. P. SINGH, JUDGE. Date: 17/08/2009 :J U D G M E N T :
Petitioners have filed this petition seeking
quashing of FIR no. 189/2008 registered at
Police Station Poonch, under Section 304 R.P.C
on the grounds that the allegations made in the
FIR were incorrect, and the registration of case
by the police, on the basis of an order passed by
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Judicial Magistrate First Class, under Section
156 (3) Cr.P.C on the complainant’s application,
without holding any enquiry thereto, was un-
warranted.
Referring to the photocopies of the
documents placed on the records, learned
counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted
that there being no proof on the records that it
was Dalip Kour, who died because of the
injuries sustained by her in the alleged quarrel,
the investigation into the FIR needs to be
quashed.
Learned counsel referred to one of the
documents, placed on the records, indicating
that the person who had died on 16.8.2008
because of Broncho pneumonia, Septicemia and
azotaemia was not, in fact, Dalip Kour, who had
lodged the initial complaint with the Police, but
was one Amrit Kour, wife of Jaswant Singh,
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and, in this view of the matter, investigation into
the FIR would result in abuse of the process of
law.
Lastly learned counsel submitted that in
view of the facts of the case, no offence under
Section 304 R.P.C can be said to have been
committed by the petitioners; the FIR and
investigation, therefore, need to be quashed.
I have considered the submissions of
learned counsel for the petitioners as also the
State counsel and the learned counsel who had
put in appearance on behalf of respondent no.6,
the husband of deceased Dalip Kour.
Perusal of the FIR reveals that Dalip Kour
herself had approached the concerned Police
Post on July 24, 2008, in an injured condition,
saying that, on being told not to dump clay in
her Courtyard, the petitioners had initially
abused her and later severely beat her. It was
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because of the intervention of the neighbours
that she was saved from the clutches of the
petitioners, otherwise she would have been done
away with by the petitioners. The petitioners,
while having, had threatened to kill her and her
family members. Her report was registered as
Report No. 10 in the Daily Diary Register at 9.30
a.m.
It appears that dissatisfied with the inaction
of the police in not proceeding further on the
report, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Poonch, too,
was approached, who referred the case to the
Police under Section 156 (3) Cr.P.C.
It was indicated in the complaint made to
the learned Magistrate that the petitioners had
caused internal and external injuries to Dalip
Kour and blood had oozed from her mouth
because of the injuries. Finding Dalip Kour
unstable in the Government Hospital Poonch,
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she was referred to the Medical College Hospital,
Jammu, on 13th of August, 2008. Keeping in
view the condition of the injured, blood too had
to be transfused in the hospital, where she
however, died on 16.08.2008.
Petitioners’ counsel’s submission that the
FIR was based on incorrect facts, is found to be
without merit, in view of the report lodged by the
deceased herself with the police post on
24.07.2008 indicating that she had been beaten
by the petitioners. The facts indicated in the
report of the deceased gets support from the
subsequent events of her having been admitted
with injuries initially in District Hospital Poonch
and thereafter in the Government Medical
College Hospital, Jammu, where she ultimately
died.
The other plea of the petitioners’ counsel
that it was Amrit Kour and not Dalip Kour, who
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had died, too, is found to be without any
substance, in that, one of the documents placed
on the records by the petitioners specifically
indicates Dalip Kour, wife of Jaswant Singh, to
have been admitted in District Hospital Poonch
with injuries over her both forearms and at the
head of the ring finger, and in this view of the
matter, it cannot be said that Dalip Kour had not
died, when the FIR specifically indicates her to
have been injured, admitted initially in District
Hospital Poonch and thereafter in Government
Medical College Hospital Jammu, where she had
died.
That apart, mere incorrect mention of the
name of the deceased in one of the documents,
would not, of itself, affect the veracity of the facts
stated in the FIR, which eloquently indicates
Dalip Kour to have been injured and later died in
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Government Medical College Hospital Jammu on
August 16, 2008.
All the pleas raised by the petitioners’
counsel, disputing the facts appearing in the
FIR, are such, which are required to be
considered initially by the investigating agency
and later by the Court, in case the investigating
agency finds the petitioners to have committed
one or the other offence.
Petitioners’ plea that no offence under
Section 304 RPC can be said to have been
committed by them, on the basis of the facts
appearing in the FIR, cannot be examined by
this Court at this stage in the absence of
requisite records. Even otherwise, it is the Court
seized of the case which has to first examine this
question and, in this view of the matter, the
petitioners’ plea needs to be rejected at this
stage.
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For all what has been said above I do not
find any merit in this petition, which is,
accordingly, dismissed.
(J. P. Singh)
Judge
JAMMU:
17.08.2009
Anil Raina, Secy