Gyanendra Kumar, J. - (1.) THE two Appellants, Har Narain and Lal Bahadur, sons of Ram Tapeshwar, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for committing the murder of Sheo Shanker, a resident of their own village Chhtauni, at about 10 a.m. on 1 -7 -1967.
(2.) THE long standing enmity and ill will between the deceased and his brother PW Ram Agya Singh on the one hand and the accused persons on the other is amply proved by the documentary and oral evidence on record. The main reason was that on 15 -7 -1957 Ram Tapeshwar (father of the accused) had sold two plots of land to Sheo Shanker (deceased) who came into their possession. Again on 21 -9 -1964 the said Tapeshwar sold another plot No. 270 to the deceased. The accused persons felt aggrieved by the said sales, which were said to be without legal necessity and without due consideration or benefit to the estate. The accused accordingly asked Sheo Shanker several times to leave the fields but he did not listen to their demand. Consequently on 19 -10 -1965 they jointly filed suit No. 199 of 1965 in the Court of the Munsif Bansgaon for cancellation of the said sale deeds and for delivery of possession over the lands, if the Plaintiffs were found to be out of possession. It is also in evidence that 3 -7 -1967 was the date fixed for hearing of the suit. The accused persons themselves allege in their statements that they had been falsely implicated in the crime due to their enmity with the deceased and his brother PW 1 Ram Agya Singh. Thus there was sufficient motive for the accused to commit the crime. The prosecution case is that on 1 -7 -1967 at about 10 a.m. Sheo Shanker (deceased) was grazing his buffaloes, sitting under a mango tree, facing east, in the thinly planted grove of one Bhagelu Singh, which was situate to the immediate east of the ploughed up field of Balram Singh. At that time PW 1 Ram Agya Singh informant (brother of the deceased) was ploughing his field situate at a distance of about 140 yards, towards the south. There is a water tap at a distance of about 100 yards towards south west of the place where Sheo Shanker was sitting. At the relevant time four other eye witnesses, viz. PW 2 Bajpai, PW 3 Ram Chandra, PW 4 Naurang and PW 6, Balai, are said to have been sitting near the water tap chatting with one another. It is said that it was PW 3 Ram Chandra who first eyed the two accused slowly proceeding towards the deceased from the west. Har Narain Appellant was armed with a pharsa, while Lal Bahadur had a lathi. Seeing the said accused so approaching the deceased, Ram Chandra is alleged to have shouted out 'Hain, Hain' - -an exclamation meant to desist the accused from carrying out their evil intention. The two accused, however, further proceeded towards the deceased and instantly, Har Narain gave a pharsa blow on his neck and Lal Bahadur caused a lathi injury to the deceased, whereafter both of them ran away towards village, Patkhausi, situate to the north -west. Sheo Shanker, being injured sprang up, staggered some steps and slumped down towards the west. All the aforesaid five eye -witnesses rushed to the spot and found that Sheo Shanker had succumbed to his injuries. PW 1 Ram Agya Singh then wrote the report (Ex. Ka -1) and lodged the same at police station Barhalganj at 12.35 p.m. - -the thana being seven miles off.
(3.) THE investigation was taken up by the Second Officer, PW 13 Akshaibar Misra, who reached the scene of occurrence at about 2 p.m. After necessary formalities, he sent the dead body for post mortem examination, collected blood stained earth from two spots shown by figures 1 and 2 in the site plan. The IO also took into his possession the clothes of the deceased and later on recovered a blood stained pharsa (Ext. 4) from the house of the accused.;