- (1.)The appellant and his brother were charged for double murder - one of Ashok Kumar and other of Ram Prasad. Appellant was convicted under Section 302, IPC and his brother for offence under Section 302/34, IPC by Court of Sessions. They were awarded life sentence.
(2.)During the pendency of appeal in the High Court against conviction and sentence passed by the Court of Session, brother of the appellant died. The appellant's appeal was heard by a Division Bench of the High Court. There was difference of opinion between the two learned Judges, one expressed the opinion that the appeal of the appellant deserves to be allowed and the other learned Judge was of the opinion that the appeal deserves to be dismissed. Both the learned Judges gave separate judgments which are fairly lengthy and contain a detailed examination of evidence. In view of this difference of opinion the matter was placed before a third learned Judge..
(3.)The case of the prosecution is based on the ocular testimony of three witnesses PWs 1, 2 and 3, besides the testimony of the informant PW 4 and other evidence including medical evidence produced in the trial before the Court of Session. The third learned Judge, before whom the matter was placed, expressed the opinion that the appellant was rightly convicted under Section 302, IPC and awarded sentence of life imprisonment. In that opinion a brief reference has been made to the testimony of only one of the eye-witnesses, namely PW 2 Smt. Kallania. According to the prosecution she was eye-witness to the murder of Ram Prasad and not to the murder of other deceased - Ashok Kumar. The eye-witnesses to the murder of Ashok Kumar, according to the prosecution case, were PW 1 and PW 3. PW 3 is an employee of PW 1, Ashok Kumar deceased was brother of PW 1, PW 4 is father of Ashok Kumar and PW 1 Sushil Kumar.