- (1.) THIS criminal appeal is directed against the order of Sessions Court dated 21.5.2003 passed in S.T. No.1285 of 2000. The appellants who are two in number have been found guilty of the offence under Section 452, 302 IPC read with Section 34 IPC and 504 IPC.
(2.) BOTH the appellants have been sentenced for life imprisonment under Section 302 IPC and fine of Rs.10,000/-, each in default, of payment of fine, further R.I of two years and for the offence under Section 452 IPC, they have been sentenced for 6 years R.I. and fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default, of payment of fine, one year further R.I and for the offence under Section 504 IPC, they have been sentenced for two years R.I. The case of the prosecution as reflected from the judgment is as follows:- On 11.8.2000, Nand Lal, the deceased is stated to have lodged the FIR with the Police Station at Sindhauli district Shahjahanpur which was registered as case crime no.223 of 2000 under Section 452, 307, 504 IPC. It was disclosed in the FIR that Nand Lal was having dinner at his residence on the said date, at around 8 p.m. the appellants Krishna Pal @ Kresh Pal, armed with Ballam and Vijay Pal armed with country-made pistol (315 bore) entered the house of the deceased unauthorizedly and started assaulting Nand Lal, the first informant. Appellant Vijay Pal fired with his country-made pistol which seriously injured the informant while the appellant Krishna Pal @ Kresh Pal assaulted the informant with Ballam. On hearing the noise, the other family members rushed to the place of occurrence. On the arrival of the family members, the appellants ran away from the place of occurrence. On the basis of the said FIR, investigation was started. The injured/informant was examined by the doctor at District Hospital Shahjahanpur, he was admitted for treatment. During treatment, the first informant expired on 16.8.2000 at around 9.10 p.m. On information of the death of the informant being received, his inquest report of the dead-body was prepared and the same was forwarded for post-mortem. Because of the death, the offence was converted into Section 302 IPC on 19.8.2000. The appellants were apprehended during investigation on 29.8.2000 and were taken into police custody under the orders of the Magistrate dated 29.8.2000. On the pointing out of the appellants, the fire arm used for assault along with one live cartridge was recovered. Similarly Ballam was recovered on the pointing out of the appellant Krishna Pal @ Kresh Pal. Fard recovery was prepared. Charge under Section 25 of Arms Act was also framed against the appellant Vijay Pal. After investigation, charge sheet was filed against both the appellants. Against Krishna Pal @ Kresh Pal and Vijay Pal charge sheet was filed under Section 452, 304/34 and 504 IPC, while against appellant Vijay Pal, charge sheet under Section 25 of Arms Act was also submitted.
(3.) ON behalf of the prosecution, the wife of the deceased Smt. Shanti Devi was examined as P.W.1, Smt. Ram Guni, the adopted daughter of the deceased was examined as P.W.2, Dr. Yogesh and Dr. V.K. Gupta who performed the post-mortem, were examined as P.W.3, and P.W.4., S.I. Gajram Singh was examined as P.W.5, Ram Nath Sharma, the scribe of the FIR was examined as P.W.6, Constable Raksha Pal Singh was examined as P.W.7, S.I. Nasiruddin was examined as P.W.8, S.I. Harjeet Singh Cheema was examined as P.W.9, S.I. Bhan Singh was examined as P.W.10, Naresh Singh was examined as P.W.11 and Dr. Ramesh Chandra Agarwal was examined as P.W.12.;