- (1.) These appeals are directed against a common impugned judgment dated 11th February, 2009 of the High court of Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, by which the appeals of the appellants herein who are accused of murdering one Manjunath, were dismissed.
(2.) Material facts of the case as per prosecution are that the father of appellant Monu Mittal (Accused No. 1) was the owner of a petrol pump namely M/s Mittal Automobiles situated at Gola, District Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. The deceased Manjunath was working as a Sales Officer with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Gola. On 13.9.2005, the deceased inspected the petrol pump of Accused No. 1 and on finding some irregularities, the sales and supplies of the petrol pump were suspended by the IOC at his instance. However, the same were restored on 19th October, 2005 after the payment of fine of Rs.75,000/- by the owner of the petrol pump. Again on 19th November, 2005, the deceased, being suspicious of malpractices still being carried on by Accused No. 1, inspected the said petrol pump.
(3.) On 20.11.2005, when the Head Constable (Ram Bhawan Singh) of P.S. Mahaoli, District Sitapur, along with Constable Asha Ram (PW2) and Driver Braj Kishore was on patrol duty on the National Highway, at about 8.00 am, one Maruti Car bearing No. UP 51 E 5176 was coming from the direction of Maigalganj and upon seeing the police jeep, the Maruti Car suddenly turned back and tried to drive away from that place. On suspicion, the Maruti Car was chased and intercepted at about 8.30 am near Green Gold Dhaba. One Vivek Sharma (Appellant - Accused No. 7) was driving the car accompanied by another appellant Rakesh Kumar Anand (Appellant-Accused No.4) who was sitting on the back seat besides a blood stained dead body of S. Manjunath (deceased). On interrogation, both accused Nos. 4 & 7 confessed that the deceased was shot dead by Pawan Kumar alias Monu Mittal (Accused No.1), Devesh Agnihotri (Accused No. 2), Sanjay Awasthi (Accused No.3), Lala Giri (Accused No.5), Harish Mishra (Accused No.6) at M/S Mittal Automobiles and they were carrying the dead body of the deceased in his car, to dispose of the same at an unknown place. Both the accused Nos. 4 & 7 were taken into custody and a recovery memo (Ext. Ka-1) was prepared and a case against all the accused under Sections 147,148,149,302 and Section 201 read with Section 34, IPC, was registered on 20.11.2005.;