- (1.) This is an appeal by the Complainant against the impugned judgment and order dated 30-04-2008 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Criminal Appeal No.1674 of 2006. In the impugned judgment the High Court had allowed the appeal of three accused persons and acquitted them while maintaining the conviction of the main accused. The present appeal before us has been filed by the complainant against the acquittal of the three accused by the High Court. The Sessions Court after trial had convicted the main accused Shyamu under S. 302, IPC along with Section 25 of the Arms Act while it convicted the other three accused persons, Balbir Singh, Vinod and Karua (respondents herein) under S. 302, IPC read with S. 34 IPC. The appeal of Shyamu against his conviction by the High Court was filed in this Court but was dismissed, thus, his conviction has attained finality.
(2.) The facts of the present case are that Shyamu, Karua and Vinod are sons of Balbir Singh and Balbir Singh is the elder brother of the complainant Ranbeer Singh. The deceased Pooran Singh was the son of the complainant Ranbeer Singh. Admittedly, there is pending criminal litigation between Ranbeer Singh and Balbir Singh, the two brothers. The pending criminal litigation relates to an incident 13 to 14 months prior to the incident in question in present case wherein Balbir Singh had fired at Ranbeer Singh with intention of killing him. The pending civil litigation related to some property between the two brothers. As per the case of the prosecution, on the date of the incident in the instant case i.e. 07-02- 2002, the complainant was irrigating his field along with his son Pooran Singh (the deceased) while the 7 year old son of Pooran Singh was sitting on the Mendh nearby. The four accused persons were irrigating their field, which was adjoining the field of the complainant, and while they were at the tubewell of their field, which is 100-150 yards away from the tubewell of the complainant's field, at around 4:45 pm, four accused persons came to the complainant making an exhortation "Aaj mauke par mil gaye hain. Inhe jaan se maar do aur maan lo ki mukdmein ka faisla ho gaya aur zameen humain mil gayi." (Today, they have met at an opportune time. Kill them and treat the litigation as decided and we got the land). Thereafter, the present three respondents Balbir Singh, Karua and Vinod held Pooran Singh and threw him on the ground and Shyamu made a shot with his gun from behind at the Pooran Singh. As this happened, the Complainant along with 7 year old grandson Ankit, ran away to save their life. On hearing the shouts of the complainant, the persons working in the nearby field saw the accused persons fleeing from the place of occurrence. The FIR was registered on the same day at 6:05 pm by the Complainant. During investigation the weapon being country made pistol of 315 bore was recovered from the field of the accused on the disclosure statement made by Shyamu.
(3.) The prosecution evidence consisted of PW1 Ranbeer Singh (eye witness), PW2 Ankit (eye witness and child witness), PW3 Dr. S.K. Seth (proved post mortem report), PW4 Constable Saiyed Mohd. Kasim, PW5 S.I. Roop Chandra Verma, PW6 Inspector Incharge Narendra Kumar Singh and PW7 Constable Pradeep Kumar.;