- (1.)Four inmates of a house were brutally murdered on the evening of 19/01/1985. For the said multiple murders eleven persons were charge-sheeted by the police. All were convicted by the trial court out of whom three were sentenced to death and the remaining were sentenced to imprisonment for life. But the appeals filed by them before the High court were allowed by a division bench of the high Court of Allahabad and the conviction and sentence passed on all the eleven accused were set aside. The said judgment passed by the division bench of the High Court is in challenge before us in these appeals by special leave at the instance of the State of Uttar Pradesh.
(2.)There is no dispute that Nathulal, the father of the house, and his wife Vidhya Devi and their two children Tej Singh and Rajvir singh were shot dead while they were inside their own house on the night of 19.1.1985. It is also not disputed that they were killed by firearms. The gist of the prosecution case is that all the eleven accused entered into the compound, variously armed with rifles, guns and pistols, and on the exhortation made by the second accused - Jawahar Singh the shooting spree had been unleashed as against the inmates of the house.
(3.)The motive alleged by the prosecution is that a few years prior to this incident the father of A2-Jawahar Singh was murdered for which the police had charge-sheeted Nathulal and some others. Nathulal was convicted by the trial court and he preferred an appeal before the High Court. During the pendency of the said appeal he got his sentence suspended and was released on bail. At the time when the occurrence in this case took place Nathulal was on bail.