- (1.) Heard Sri S.K. Pal and Sri Sushil Kumar, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the accused-appellant and learned A.G.A. for the State. The present appeal was initially filed on behalf of the four accused-appellants, namely, Paras Singh, Badi Singh, Nanku Yadav and Sheo Kanth, however, during the pendency of the present appeal before this Court, appellant No. 1 Paras Singh and appellant No. 2 Badi Singh have already expired and their appeal stood abated vide order of this Court dated 5.12.2005. It has been brought on record that appellant No. 3 Nanku Yadav has also expired during the pendency of the present appeal before this Court and his appeal has also been abated vide order of this Court dated 23.9.2014. Thus, at present the appeal is being considered only on behalf of appellant No. 4 Sheo Kanth.
(2.) The brief facts as they emerge are that an F.I.R. was lodged on 29.5.1980 at 8:30 a.m. at police station Kalyanpur, sub district Bindki, district Fatehpur with regard to one incident of 28.5.1980 which took place at village Duddi Kagar sometime at about 9:30 p.m. in the night. The F.I.R. was lodged by Smt. Chandrawati as first informant being the wife of the deceased. The case of the prosecution as set up in the F.I.R., in short, is to the effect that in the night of 28.5.1980 Sri Shiv Prasad Pandey, husband of the first informant Smt. Chandrawati was at his tubewell in the west of village Doodhi Kagar, police station Kalyanpur where he was busy in the process of wheat threshing with the help of three labourers, namely, Chandrapal, Nankau and Horilal and at that time Vishambhar Nath, the brother-in-law (sala) of Shiv Prasad Pandey and Umakant were also present at the said tubewell; that it was moonlit night that Smt. Chandrawati, the first informant along with her daughter Km. Nirmala was going to her tubewell to give meal/food to her husband Shiv Prasad Pandey and her brother Vishambhar Das and as soon as she reached out of her village she heard three gun shots and also a hue and cry as a result of which she got horrified and hearing the sound, when she rushed towards her tubewell, she saw in the grove of Man-gal and Bhola accused Paras Singh carrying a Gun, accused Badi Singh and Shiv Kanth carrying a Tamancha and accused Nankoo armed with Ballam, coming hurriedly from the side of the tubewell. It is said that the complainant and the daughter had hidden themselves behind a Mahuwa tree and heard the talks of the aforesaid accused persons saying "AAJ APNE RASTE KA KANTA SAF KAR DIYA"; that as soon as the aforesaid accused persons had passed away from that side, the complainant immediately rushed towards the tubewell and found her husband Shiv Prasad Pandey lying dead over the cot in a pool of blood. It was mentioned in the written report by the complainant that since there was long standing enmity between the family of the complainant and the accused persons, accordingly, the murder has been committed by the accused persons. On the basis of the said written report, the case was registered at the police station and it was investigated by S.I. R.P. Tripathi of police station Kalyanpur, who after completing the entire investigation, - submitted the charge-sheet against the aforesaid four accused persons under section 302 IPC.
(3.) The Court below had charged all the four accused persons under section 302 IPC read with section 34 IPC, however all the accused persons denied the charge and pleaded false implication.;