- (1.) M. C. Jain, J. The appellants, Vijay Singh, Ashok Kumar and Vinod Kumar are real brothers being sons of Sardar Singh. They have been convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 I. P. C. by judgment dated 7-9-1999 passed by the then II Additional Sessions Judge, Ghaziabad in S. T. No. 71 of 1995. Each of them has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Aggrieved, they have been preferred this appeal.
(2.) THE matter relates to the murder of one Balbir Singh on 11-12- 1994 at about 4. 45 p. m. at the house of Alam Singh (uncle of the appellants) situate in village Bhikanpur, Police Station Murad Nagar, District Ghaziabad. THE F. I. R. was lodged the same day at 5. 45 p. m. by P. W. 1 Kunwar Pal Singh son of the deceased. THE distance of the police station from the place of occurrence was eight kilometres. The facts as revealed from the F. I. R. and evidence adduced in the trial Court are that on the date of the incident the marriage party of Sandeep (cousin of the informant and nephew of the deceased) had returned to the village at about 3. 00 p. m. after wedding. Balbir Singh was sitting at his house and conversing with the guests. At about 4. 45 p. m. the appellant Ashok Kumar came to his house and asked the deceased Balbir Singh to accompany him to the house of his uncle Alam Singh for some important talks. Balbir Singh accompanied him and reached the house of Alam Singh, which was just across the lane. Balbir Singh's brother P. W. 3 Rajbir Singh also followed him. P. W. 2 Jai Pal Singh resident of village Saini (husband of the sister of wife of Balbir Singh) was also sitting at the house of Alam Singh. The appellants Vijai Singh and Vinod Kumar were also there consuming liquor. The appellant Ashok Kumar stated that he (Balbir Singh) would pitch his son Kunwar Pal Singh (informant) in the election of Pradhan and, therefore, he be killed. Instantaneously, Ashok Kumar and Vinod Kumar appellants caught hold of the hands of Balbir Singh and the appellant Vijai Singh opened shot on Balbir Singh from a pistol. Balbir Singh, receiving the shot, dropped down dead. All the three appellants then ran away towards their house. On hearing the shot, the deceased's son Kunwar Pal Singh reached the spot and found his father lying dead. On lodging of F. I. R. a case was registered and the police investigated. The Investigating Officer P. W. 7 S. I. Jagdish Singh Yadav reached the spot and after completing necessary formalities sent the dead body of the deceased for post-mortem. Two empty cartridges of. 315 bore were also collected by him from the spot. The evidence is to this effect also that appellant Vinod was arrested on 12-12-1994 and at his instance the country-made pistol of 315 bore with a live cartridge had been recovered. The country- made pistol got recovered by him and two empty cartridges collected from the spot were sent for comparison to Ballistic Expert who too was examined as C. W. 1 Ram Asare Pandey, Assistant Director of Government Laboratory, Agra. On testing he found that shots had been fired from the country- made pistol in question to which the empty cartridges recovered from the spot belonged. His report is exhibit Ka-19.
(3.) TO come to the point, the post-mortem over the deadbody of the deceased was conducted on 12-12- 1994 at 2. 15 p. m. by P. W. 5 Dr. M. M. Sharma. The deceased was 55 years of age and one day had passed since he died. The following ante-mortem injury was found on the person of the deceased: "gun shot wound of entry 2-1/2 cm x 2 cm x chest cavity deep present on front of chest slightly left to the midline 14 cm below superasternum left and 9-1/2 cm below and medial to left nipple. Margins of the wound are irregular and inverted with tattooing. Body of sternum and costal cartilage of left fourth rib fractured into pieces underneath. The direction was from left front to right back. A metallic bullet was also recovered from back muscles of right chest. " The cause of death was shock and haemorrhage as a result of ante-mortem injury.;