- (1.) APPELLANTS one to ten, namely Bhoop Singh (A-1), Ashok Kumar (A-2), Shiv Narain (A-3), Rakesh (A-4), Gyan Singh (A-5), Chandan Singh (A-6), Ram Prasad (A-7), Anand (A-8), Dinbandhu (A-9) appendaged with Gauri Shanker (A-10), have approached this Court u/s 374(2) Cr.P.C. by instituting these three appeals challenging veracity and sustainability of their conviction and sentence order dated 15.1.1982 recorded by IVth Additional Sessions Judge, Agra, in S.T. No. 13 of 1981, State Vs. Anand and others, relating to Crime No. 439 of 1980, P.S. Sadar Bazar, District Agra. Learned Trial Judge, after collating evidences tendered before it during the Session's Trial, summating facts and circumstances of the case, has held appellant Gauri Shanker (A-10) guilty under Section 302 I.P.C. and rest of the appellants, (A-1 ) to (A-9), guilty u/s 302/149 I.P.C. and therefore has convicted them of that crime and has imposed sentence of life imprisonment on each one of them. It has further held appellants Anand (A-8) & Dinbandhu (A-9), guilty under Section 307 I.P.C. and, therefore, has convicted them for that crime and has imposed sentence of 5 years RI on each one of them. Learned Trial Judge has further held appellants Ashok, Bhoop Singh, Ram Prasad, Shiv Narain, Rakesh, Gyan Singh and Chandan Singh, (A-1) to (A-7), guilty under Section 147 I.P.C. and has sentenced them to 1 year RI with Rs.500/= fine, the default sentence being 6 months further RI. Rest of the three appellants Anand, Dinbandhu and Gauri Shanker (A-8) to (A-10), were convicted and sentenced U/s 148 I.P.C. for 2 years RI with Rs.500.00 fine, the default sentence being 6 months additional RI. All the accused were further convicted and sentenced u/s 323/149 I.P.C. to 6 months RI with Rs.500/= fine, the default sentence being 6 months additional simple imprisonment. Learned trial court has further directed all the sentences of all the accused to run concurrently. Hence these connected appeal.
(2.) NARRATED briefly, gist of prosecution case, as was mentioned by the first informant Mukesh alias Collector in his written F.I.R., Ext. Ka-1, and later on testified during trial by the fact witnesses, are that Roop Lal(deceased) and Hukum Singh (injured) PW7, were real brothers. First informant Mukesh, PW1, is the son of the deceased and nephew of injured Hukum Singh, PW7. Injured Rakesh is the son of injured PW7 and nephew of the deceased and cousin brother of the informant. Satish is cousin brother of the informant and son of Naththi Lal. On the date of the incident all of these persons resided in Nai Basti locality, under P.S. Sadar Bazar, District Agra. Accused appellants (A-1),(A-3),(A-7) and (A-10) were real sibling brothers being sons of Biranji Lal. Similarly appellants (A-2), (A-8) & (A- 9) were real brothers being sons of Bhoop Singh. (A-6) is the son of Chiranji Lal and father of ( A-4). All these appellant accused also resided in the same locality and were related to each other. Another accused Hari Babu, who was not tried alongwith the appellants, is the son of Ram Singh. According to the depositions of fact witnesses, Ram Singh and Chirangi Lal were uncle and were related to each other whereas Ram Singh and Prabhu Dayal were maternal cousin brothers.
(3.) IT was alleged that Dinesh, s/o appellant Shiv Narain(A-3), was murdered in which crime injured Hukum Singh was one of the named accused. Murder trial against injured PW7, was pending on the incident date, albeit later on PW7 was acquitted in that crime. Motivated by the said murder and to avenge the death of Dinesh, on Sunday, 20.7.1980 at about 8.30 A.M. all the accused armed with knives, iron rods and lathies, raided informant's house from the front lane, when the informant, the deceased and injured PW7, were sitting on the erected platform (Chabutara) in front of their house. Appellants (A-8,9 &10) carried knives with them , whereas (A-1) was armed with an iron rod and rest of the raiders carried lathis. Ab initio, all the assailants rounded up the deceased and the injured Hukum Singh,PW7 and then dragged them towards jungle. Informant and other two witnesses present at the scene raised hue and cry, which attracted injured Satish P.W.2, Rakesh, Mahendra, Nawal Kishore, Tara Chand and Narain towards incident scene, who all had witnessed the entire episode. Hari Babu, non-appellant, instigated his associates to do away with both the rounded up persons, on which appellant Gauri Shanker (A-10) assaulted deceased Roop Lal with knife and appellant Bhoop Singh(A-1) assaulted him with iron rod. Appellant Anand(A-8) assaulted injured Hukum Singh with knife, whereas appellant Shiv Narain (A-3), Ashok (A-2) and Gyan Singh (A-5) assaulted him with lathies. In the midst of the incident, it is further alleged, that appellant Ram Prasad (A-7) hurled another instigation call to his other associates, on which, Dinbandhu (A-9) knifed the informant in left side stomach. Appellant Chandan Singh (A-6) assaulted informant's cousin brother with lathi and accused-appellant Rakesh (A-4) assaulted injured Satish with lathi. After the assault assailants escaped from the incident scene. Roop Lal (deceased) and injured Hukum Singh, both had lost their consciousness sustaining injuries. With the help of local people, both of them were carried on cots and thereafter were transported in a rickshaw to the District Hospital, Agra accompanied with other injured witnesses. Deceased Roop Lal had succumbed to his injuries midway to the hospital. Rest of the injured were given first-aid in the hospital.;