SURENDRA KUMAR AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF U.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Nagendra Mohan, learned counsel for the appellants, and Mrs. Madhulika Yadav, learned AGA for the State, were heard at length.

(2.) Under challenge in the instant criminal appeal is the judgment and order dated 31.03.1981 passed by IV Additional Sessions Judge, Lucknow, in Sessions Trial No. 70 of 1980 arising out of Case Crime No. 240 of 1979, Police Station Mohanlalganj, District Lucknow, whereby all the four accused persons were convicted under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 IPC and were sentenced with imprisonment for life.

(3.) In brief, the case of the prosecution was that on 12.07.1979 at about 12 noon deceased Kailash Nath Misra along with Smt. Kusum Lata wife of his nephew and her two minor sons Ravi Anand aged about 11 years and Rohit Anand aged about 4 -5 years boarded Bus No. URA 4730 at Mohanlalganj for going to Lucknow. Smt. Kusumlata was sitting on the front lady seat near the seat of the driver while the deceased was sitting on a seat at the point of rear door of the bus. The bus was packed to its capacity. Some of the passengers were standing. Among the standing passengers, Badri Vishal, Gaya Prasad, Rajjan Shukla, Mustafa, Yunus, Guru Prasad and others were in the bus. The accused persons Surendra Kumar and Rajendra Kumar also boarded the bus and were amongst the standing passengers (both these appellants have died during pendency of this appeal and vide order dated 04.04.2016 the appeal so far as it relates to them has been abated). These two accused persons were standing in front of seat of Kailash Nath Misra. The conductor of the bus Ram Naresh was issuing tickets to the passengers from the front rows of the bus. The moment the bus left Mohanlalganj the accused persons, namely Surendra Kumar and Rajendra Kumar, who were armed with a revolver and a country made pistol respectively, discharged three or four shots aiming at Kailash Nath Misra. The bullets hit the deceased. Sustaining gunshot injuries, the deceased fell down near the seat and succumbed to the injuries on the spot. The bus was stopped near the Dak Bungalow of Mohanlalganj. Accused Surendra Kumar loaded his revolver and threatened the passengers before getting down from the bus along with accused Rajendra Kumar. A motorcycle stopped near the rear exit of the bus on which accused Virendra Kumar and Ravi Shankar were present. The assailants sat on the motorcycle and all the four accused persons ran away towards Mohanlalganj. Some of the passengers left the bus and went away from there while some of them remained present there. The complainant Arun Kumar Misra who was not a passenger in the bus got the news of murder of Pradhan of his village. Since his uncle was Pradhan so he immediately rushed towards the place of incident and after seeing the dead body of his uncle, went to the police station, prepared first information report and lodged it at the police station at 01.15 PM. This first information report was lodged against unknown persons and none of the accused person was named in the first information report.