- (1.) The appellants were convicted for offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (in short the 'IPC') and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment by the trial Court. They did not get any relief from the Allahabad High Court which by the impugned judgment upheld the conviction and sentence.
(2.) The prosecution version as unfolded during trial is as follows : After death of Durga Singh, each of his three sons became owner of about 30 bighas of land. One of them, Khetrapal (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') was issueless. Earlier Khetrapal used to reside with accused Janak Singh and the latter used to cultivate the land which fell to share of Khetrapal also. But about a year or 1-1/2 years prior to the incident in question, Khetrapal started living with Bhuri Singh (PW-1). The land of Khetrapal Singh, which was earlier being cultivated by Janak Singh came into the possession of Bhuri Singh. This was to the disliking of accused Janak Singh. Khetrapal wanted to execute a Will in favour of Bhuri Singh. On the date of incident, i.e. 16-10-1979 at about 10 a.m., Khetrapal along with Bhuri Singh (PW-1) and Surjeet Singh (PW-7) were proceeding to Etmadpur Teshil for execution of the Will and when they reached near the pit, the accused Janak Singh armed with a country made pistol and accused Sarvesh with a gun arrived there and enquired from Khetrapal whether he was going to execute a Will in favour of Bhuri Singh and when Khetrapal replied in affirmative, Janak Singh told that they would not allow him to do so. Thereafter both accused Janak Singh and Sarvesh fired upon Khetrapal who fell down on the ground on receiving gunshot injuries. When Bhuri Singh and Surjeet Singh (PW-7) tried to save Khetrapal, they were also fired upon by the accused persons and they also sustained fire arm injuries. When deceased Khetrapal fell down on the ground accused Sarvesh fired at Khetrapal from his gun, resulting in Khetrapal's instantaneous death. Bhuri Singh (PW-1) then lodged the first information report, which was ascribed by Ram Singh at police station Etmadpur on the same day at 1.30 p.m., the distance of police station being 4 miles from the place of occurrence. On the basis of the written report, chik First Information Report was prepared by the Head Moharrir, Bihari Ji Yadav and the case was registered in the General Diary. The Station Officer Mahabir Singh took up investigation and interrogated Bhuri Singh and Surjeet Singh at the police station itself and sent both of them to hospital for medical examination with constable Lajja Ram. The investigation was undertaken and on completion thereof charge sheet was placed and accused persons faced trial. To substantiate its accusations the prosecution examined 8 witnesses. Though PWs. 1 and 7 were stated to be eye-witnesses who had sustained injuries during the occurrence, PW-7 resiled from the statement given during investigation. So, the prosecution case rested on the testimony of PW-1 the injured eye-witness. The trial Court found that his evidence was credible and cogent and conviction was made as noted above.
(3.) The main stand of the accused persons before the High Court was that evidence of PW-1 did not inspire confidence as it was at a great variance with the medical evidence. Therefore, he being an interested person who would be beneficiary if the accused persons are convicted, without corroboration his evidence should not be acted upon. The specific plea regarding the variation of PW-1's evidence vis-a-vis medical evidence was with reference to distance. According to the doctor, the gun shot which caused injury was fired from a distance of about 3-4 ft. According to PW-1, the distance was about 20-25 ft. The trial Court noticed that PW-1 was a person who even did not know how to sign and gave thumb impression. His perception of distance being that of a layman, no undue importance should be attached to the estimated distance. Similar plea raised before the High Court also did not find acceptance.;