AMANDEEP MURDER CASE: Court awards lifer to Royal Singh; acquits Nagar, then SSP Manohar, Ors

STRICTURES PASSED AGAINST POLICE

11/08/2020

JAMMU, Aug 10: After 11 years of Trial, 2nd Additional Sessions Judge Jammu Virender Singh Bhou today announced judgment of much publicized murder case of Amandeep.
2nd Additional Sessions Judge Jammu Virender Singh Bhou today awarded life-imprisonment to Royal Singh whereas acquitted Manohar Singh then SSP Jammu, Sultan Mehmood Mirza then SHO, Sarwar Hussain Bukhari then Ballastic Expert, Nagar Singh, Jagar Singh and Rakesh Singh.
2nd Additional Sessions Judge Jammu the instant criminal challan trial whereof continued for more than 10 years in this Court and ultimately culminates with the pronouncement of this judgment, demonstrates various factors, which influence and serve as impediment in the fair administration of criminal justice with promptitude, thus, afflicting the justice. It needs no emphasis that the system of justice in our country, comprises of three major components and weakness in one or more of these three components is bound to influence its efficiency and outcomes, so, thus the system demands full cooperation, coordination and honesty among these three components. The edifice of a criminal case, undoubtedly is based on the investigation and so the basic and important player/stakeholder is investigating agency, which is under legal and professional morality to investigate the case in an honest, unbiased and professionally oriented manner, uninfluenced by any pressure, because functionally the police is accountable to Constitution and Laws of the land, which it is obliged to uphold. If the investigation is influenced, justice gets tainted and process becomes an instrument of harassment and against those who are unable to fight through the system. Unfortunately, this has become the order of the day and has assumed even some degree of legitimacy, in recent times. It further need elaboration that police investigates the alleged crimes and the primary entry point for cases, into the criminal justice system and has been given wide discretion to decide how to behave and act and at times this discretion is misused by the investigators for variety of reasons and resultant effect thereof is failure of justice and, therefore, off and on, investigational aptitude of police officers involved in the investigation of crime more particularly high profile cases, is under criticism because of slip shod, faulty, non-scientific and disoriented investigation of cases and ultimate result is acquittal of cases and, thus eroding peoples faith in the effectiveness of criminal justice system when accused of heinous and ghastly offences are acquitted. This case was projected as "High Profile" case of the State by the Investigating Agency and prosecution for the reason that accused no.1 (now dead) being son of accused no.8 Nagar Singh, who being a leading businessman of Jammu & Kashmir and one of the highest tax payers as submitted by the defence and having shady past and the potential to influence the investigation and prosecution and even trial of the case by the prosecution, but on going through the material on record and trial of the case, this Court noticed certain fault lines in the investigation of the case viewed from different angles and even role of investigators and those who supervised the investigation appears to be doubtful and questionable on one hand or the same was outcome of ineptness, inefficient investigation and disorientation and since the case had been categorized as high profile case, unfair profiling and excessive vilification of accused by the investigators at the behest of invisible vested interest and actors cannot be ruled out given the mode and manner in which investigation has been conducted. At times media also plays its role in influencing investigation of a criminal case and even overt attempts are made to influence the trial and prejudice the mind of the Court but the fact remains Courts are not influenced by emotions and sentiments because Mr. Prejudice and Ms. Sympathy are not the witnesses who record their testimony in the Courts and Courts decides a case purely on basis of facts, circumstances and evidence brought on record during trial as the trial is a voyage of discovery in which truth is quest and every Court strives its best to find the truth during trial of a case to do complete justice and bring the culprits to justice. In the instant case before main accused Jatinder Singh alias Raja, accused Satnam Singh and accused Raj Singh could be brought to justice by the process of law, the law of nature played its role and did justice with them because they suffered untimely death during the pendency of the trial of this case. This Court has no hesitation to observe and say that investigators while conducting proceedings and collecting evidence have acted as if they were writing script of a movie and were conducting shooting of a suspense movie and, thus, indulgence in twisting of true facts and use of false facts to convince and persuade this Court to come to false conclusion cannot be ruled out and, thus, this Court cannot resist to observe and place on record the conduct, behaviour and role of the investigators and sound a note of caution for all the investigators, who are in service to be attentive, vigilant, careful, fair and professional in their dealings in future lest they should be put to task for their wrong doings.
Court further directed DGP, UT of Jammu and Kashmir is notified regarding this observation of the Court to seek an explanation from all the investigators, who are in service regarding lapses and gaps left in the case.
The unsavory incident over trivial issue regarding business rivalry concerning operation of Cable inter se Amandeep Singh (hereinafter referred to as deceased) and accused no. 1 Jatinder Singh alias Raja (now dead) and accused no.2 Royal Singh resulted in death of the deceased. The prosecution case as unfolded during the course of investigation because of its peculiar facts and circumstances perforces me to give the entire details pertaining to the stage wise investigation of the instant case.
Court after hearing Special PP Sunil Sethi for the State whereas R.K. Kotwal, A.K. Shan, Rohit Sharma and Mandeep Singh, Advocates for the accused persons further observed that As the proceedings and challan against deceased-accused Jatinder Singh alias Raja stood abated, the role of accused Royal Singh in terms of section 34 of the RPC in the commission of offence by accused Jatinder Singh alias Raja is established beyond reasonable shadow of doubt. So, the offence committed by main accused is attributable to the accused Royal Singh also because his role cannot be considered in isolation and in segregation rather he is collaborator in the commission of alleged offence. So, the ingredients of alleged offence under sections 302/34 RPC r/w section 3/25 of Indian Arms Act are established against accused Royal Singh beyond reasonable shadow of doubt and he is convicted for the said offences. So far as accused Satnam Singh and Raj Singh are concerned they also expired during pendency of the challan and challan also abates against them under law. Further, prosecution has miserably failed to prove the relevant facts leading to the occurrence and role played by other accused persons in conspiracy of swapping of alleged weapon of offence to screen the main accused and also for changing the bullet during investigation on the basis of evidence, which is conflicting, contradictory and suffers from factual gaps, loopholes and missing links, beyond reasonable shadow of doubt, so the benefit of doubt goes to accused, namely, Nagar Singh, Jagar Singh, Rakesh Singh, Manohar Singh, Sultan Mehmood Mirza and S.H. Bukhari. Resultantly, the challan against these accused fails and is accordingly dismissed so far it pertains to these accused persons. Whereas, challan sustain against accused Royal Singh.
With these observations, the Court awarded rigorous imprisonment for life for the commission of offence under section 302 RPC and pay a fine of Rs. 30,000/- to Royal Singh. In case of default of payment of fine the convict shall undergo further simple imprisonment of two months. The convict, namely, Royal Singh, Jammu is further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- for the commission of offence under section 3/25 Arms Act. In case of default of payment of fine the convict shall undergo further simple imprisonment of two months. Court further clarified that both the sentences run concurrently.

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