4, including woman, get life sentence for murder

LUDHIANA: The court of additional sessions judge K K Goyal has sentenced four persons, including a woman to life imprisonment for the murder of a person over his cow, which would defecate at the house of his relative. The convicts included Budh Singh, Malkit Singh, Sucha Singh and Bachan Kaur. The court acquitted Hardeep Singh, Harjinder Singh, Gurmeet Kaur, Balwinder Singh and Surinderpal Singh on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
On August 28, 2016, Machhiwara police booked nine persons, including Budh Singh (70), Malkit Singh (29), Hardeep Singh (30), Harjinder Singh (39), Gurmeet Kaur (65), Bachan Kaur (65), Balwinder Singh (47), Surinderpal Singh (45) and Sucha Singh (47) of Mahadipur for the murder of Gurdeep Singh of the same village.
The prosecution said that Chanan Singh told the police that his son Gurdeep Singh, aged about 22, worked as priest in the village gurdwara. He said that Gurdeep was going to his brother's house to get milk when Sucha Singh, Malkit Singh and Hardeep Singh, sons of Budh Singh, his wife Bachan Kaur, Gurmeet Kaur, Harjinder Singh, Baljinder Singh and Surinderpal intercepted him. He said that they were armed and attacked Gurdeep Singh with an iron rod. He added that Malkit Singh, Sucha Singh and Hardeep Singh attacked his son.
His sister-in-law Surinder Kaur tried to come to his aid but he said that Bachan Kaur hit her on the forehead and Balwinder Singh attacked her. He said that when his son raised an alarm, his elder brother Nirmal Singh and younger brother Kulwinder Singh rushed to the spot and the accused fled with their weapons. They took all the three injured to the civil hospital in Machiwara on motorcycles. His son was referred to GMCH-32, Chandigarh but he died on reaching Chandigarh. He said that the attack was prompted by Budh Singh's cow defecating at the house of Nirmal Singh. Nirmal Singh and Sucha Singh had been asking them to tie their cow.
Police registered a case against the accused and a chargesheet was produced in court. During trial, the accused pleaded false implication. Counsels for the accused argued there was unexplained delay in lodging of an FIR, which has been used to rope in maximum number of persons as accused. The court didn’t find weight in the defence’s argument and held that there is in fact no unexplained delay in reporting the matter to the police by him, considering the fact of his going to hospital in Machhiwara and then to hospital in Chandigarh and coming back. Defence counsel argued that cow of accused Budh Singh was allegedly going to the house of Nirmal Singh and causing damage there, which was the bone of contention between them. However, no injury was caused to Nirmal Singh by the accused, whereas injuries were caused to Gurdeep Singh and others, with whom Budh Singh and others had no dispute. So, accused had no motive to cause injuries. The court held that the contention was without merit.