M.K. Mukherjee, C.J. - (1.) Murdhwaj and his son Prem Singh of village Bairi, under the Police Station of Khakhreru in the district of Fatehpur, were laced on trial before the Sessions Judge, Fatehpur, for the murder of Vidyanand, a resident of their village, and attempted Murder of his brother Dev Sharan on 5.7.76. On conclusion of the trial, the learned Judge found both the appellants guilty of the above two charges and convicted them thereunder. For the former conviction each of them was sentence to suffer imprisonment for life and for the latter to rigorous imprisonment for one year, with a direction that the sentences would run concurrently. The above order of conviction and sentence is under challenge in the instant appeal by the above two convicts.
(2.) The case for the prosecution is as under: On 5.7.76, at or about 5 p.m. Vidyanand, accompanied by his brother Dev Sharan, had been to village Bijarehar to irrigate their field, known as 'Jamunihawala Khet', from the Khakhreru Rajbaha (Government Canal). At the sight of Dev Sharan and his brother, the appellant Muradhwaj gave out that he would not let them take water to their field. Vidyanand did not pay any heed to his utterances and made a drain for flow of water from the canal towards his field. Over this issue, there was an exchange of hot words between the brothers, on the one hand and the father and son on the other. In the course of the quarrel, Muradhwaj fired at Vidyanand with a gun, as a result of which he fell down dead. His son Prem Singh then whipped out a pistol and fired at Dev Sharan. The shot, however, did not hit him as he sat down. In the meantime, Chandrabhan (P.W. 4), who was working in his own field nearby, and Gulab Chandra (P.W. 2) and Nanhu (P.W. 3), who were returning from Pauli market, arrived at the scene and challenged the appellants. The appellants then ran away to their village.
(3.) After entrusting the dead body of Vidyanand to his uncle Lakshmi Narain, Dev Sharan went to the Police Station and lodged an information about the incident On that information, 3 case was registered and Sri Jgannath Tewari (P.W. 5), Station Officer, took up investigation of the case. He went to village Bairi and held inquest upon the dead body of Vidyanand. He then sent to the dead body for post mortem examination. On completion of investigation, he submitted charge-sheet and in due course, the case was committed to the Court of Session.;