In Brief
On 3 March 2001, at Barnala Court Complex, an assault occurred when a group of five armed men attacked four individuals who had attended a court hearing in a rape-murder case. One victim, Dalip Singh, died from head injuries sustained during the attack. The appellants, Manjit Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, were convicted of murder and rioting. Manjit Singh raised an alibi plea (claiming presence elsewhere), which the Supreme Court rejected because he never suggested it to prosecution witnesses or mentioned it in his statement under Section 313 CrPC. The Court affirmed the convictions, holding that injured eyewitnesses' testimony is sufficient without independent witnesses, and that an unlawful assembly with common object had been established on the spur of the moment to avenge an earlier crime.
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