The Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended the remaining life sentence of 74-year-old applicant-appellant Rampal, who had already undergone 10 years and 27 days of imprisonment for offences under Sections 343, 302 and 120-B IPC. The Division Bench comprising Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Deepinder Singh Nalwa allowed the suspension application during pendency of the main appeal, noting debatable issues in medical evidence and lack of support from key witnesses.
The appellant was seeking suspension of sentence imposed upon him vide order dated October 17, 2018 pursuant to judgment dated October 11, 2018 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Special Court at Central Jail-I, Hisar. He had been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 2 years under Section 343 IPC with fine of Rs. 5,000, rigorous imprisonment for life without any remission under Section 302 IPC with fine of Rs. 1 lakh, and rigorous imprisonment for life without any remission under Section 120-B IPC with fine of Rs. 1 lakh.
The applicant/appellant contended that he had been falsely implicated and that it was a case of natural death, wherein the report of the board of doctors showed that the deceased had died on account of pneumonia. It was submitted that two eye-witnesses, namely the husband and mother-in-law of the deceased, had themselves admitted that the deceased had already been suffering from pneumonia for about one month prior to the occurrence. It was further contended that the applicant/appellant is aged about 74 years and had already undergone an actual sentence of 10 years and 27 days. It was argued that since 13 of his other co-accused have already been released on bail, the applicant/appellant also deserves the same concession on grounds of parity.
However, the applicant’s claim was rejected by the State and it was submitted that the deceased, along with several other women, had been held captive in the ashram of the applicant/appellant, where they were not provided food or sufficient accommodation, and it was due to suffocation that the deceased lost her life. A custody certificate of the applicant/appellant was also filed in Court, showing that he had undergone an actual sentence of 10 years and 27 days out of the total sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life without remission, and the same was taken on record.
The Court observed that although specific allegations had been made against the applicant/appellant for keeping women captive, certain debatable issues existed, particularly in relation to the medical evidence on record. Additionally, it was found that the applicant/appellant as on date was aged about 74 years and had undergone the substantive period of sentence of 10 years and 27 days and given the fact that husband as well as mother-in-law of the deceased have not supported the case of the prosecution, the Court found it to be a fit case for suspending the sentence during pendency of the main appeal.
Accordingly, the application was allowed and it was ordered that remaining sentence of imprisonment of the applicant/appellant shall remain suspended during pendency of the appeal, subject to furnishing bail bonds/surety bonds to the satisfaction of the Chief Judicial Magistrate/Duty Magistrate concerned.
Appearances:
Applicant/Appellant: Mr. Vinod Ghai, Senior Advocate with Mr. Arnav Ghai, Advocate; Mr. Arjun Sheoran, Advocate and Ms. Kashish Sahni, AdvocateState: Mr. Deepak Bhardwaj, Addl. A.G., Haryana with Mr. Munish Sharma, DAG, Haryana
