The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the conviction of three men in a 2011 attack in Tarn Taran that left three members of a family, including a six-year-old child, dead and three others seriously injured.
In September 2019, the trial court had convicted the trio under Sections 302, 307, 326, 324, 323, 450 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. On the intervening night of January 31 and February 1, 2011, the trio, along with their accomplices, entered the family’s property near a village in Tarn Taran and attacked them with sharp-edged weapons.
However, the court modified their sentence from “rigorous imprisonment for life till biological death” to 25-year rigorous imprisonment without remission (no early release).
The prosecution alleged that the attack was carried out over a land dispute and that Jagtar had conspired with the other accused to eliminate the family. Jagtar also claimed that he was in Mumbai when the attack took place. The high court, however, found the contradictions to be immaterial. The court also held that the conspiracy could be established through circumstantial evidence, as such conspiracies were generally hatched in secrecy.
It observed that the injured eyewitnesses had survived a “barbaric attack” and their testimony could not be expected to be assessed in the same manner as that of a witness in normal circumstances.
Challenging their conviction before the high court, they argued that they had been falsely implicated and pointed to contradictions, delayed statements and lack of identification in the FIR.
However, considering the nature of the case, the roles of the accused and the period already undergone, it reduced the sentence to 25-year rigorous imprisonment without remission. Finding no perversity in the trial court’s findings, the bench upheld the convictions.
