PRADEEP KUMAR SINGH BAGHEL,J. - (1.) These appeals arise out of an incident which is alleged to have taken place in Village Lama, Police Station Kotwali Dehat, Banda on 18/19 April, 1993 wherein one Ram Kishore, the brother of the first informant Jugal Kishore, was murdered.
(2.) The appellants Ram Prakash, Gappa alias Devraj, Chunubad Singh and Prakash Singh stood charged under Section 302/34. Two of the accused, namely, Ram Swaroop and Rajendra have also been found guilty for the offence punishable under Section 120-B I.P.C. All the accused persons have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life by the Ist Additional Sessions Judge, Banda in Sessions Trial No. 24 of 1994.
(3.) The prosecution case is that the first informant--Jugal Kishore and his brother Ram Kishore are the residents of Village Lama. They are marginal farmers. In the night of 18/19th April, 1993 his brother went to his Khalihan where thrashing of the crop was going on. While Rameshwar was taking rest on the cot and Raj Bahadur his brother-in-law was sleeping in bullock cart, suddenly, four persons emerged from darkness. Two of them were armed with gun and two were armed with barchhi and lathi. They came near Raj Bahadur and asked him about Raj Kishore. Thereafter they went near the cot and hit him with a lathi. Thereafter they took him at the tubewell which was adjacent to the place of incident and after assaulting him by lathi one of the assailants fired at him from a close range causing grievous injuries. Ram Kishore succumbed to his injuries at the spot. His brother Jugal Kishore was at his home at the time of incident. He reached at 12.45 A.M. (in night) and after staying at spot he proceeded to Police Station Kotwali Dehat, which is at the distance of 5 km. He reached the police station at 2.00 a.m. in the night and a chick F.I.R. was prepared and it was registered on 19.4.1993 in the same night.;