- (1.) N. S. Gupta, J. Ant Ram (aged 50 years) and his three sons viz. Jaivir (aged 16 years), Kalloo (aged 19 years) and Omvir (aged 16 years) were brutally murdered on 4-12-92 at about 5. 00 p. m. in the jungle of village Ahrora, police station Jansath, dis trict Muzaffarnagar. Accused appellant Kirnu and his sons Ambrish and Sanjay alongwith one Rakesh were tried and con victed for the said incident by Sri Kartae Singh, the then Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Muzaffarnagar who vide his judg ment and order dated 4-3-1998 convicted them. Accused Kirnu, Ambrish and Rakesh were sentenced to undergo R. I. for a period of 3 years under Section 148, I. P. C. , 7years R. I. under Sections 307/149, I. P. C and a fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default of the payment of the same to further undergo R. I. for a period of two years. The sentences were to run concur rently. Accused appellant Kirnu, Ambrish and Rakesh were sentenced to death under Sections 302/149, I. P. C. subject to the con firmation of the said sentence by this Court. Accused Sanjay though convicted but was given the benefit of Children Act, he being less than 16 years of age on the date of occurrence and was therefore, not sent to jail. Accordingly the aforesaid criminal reference for the confirmation of the death sentence was submitted by the learned Additional Sessions Judge to this Court. The accused-appellant Kirnu, Ambrish and Rakesh preferred the aforesaid criminal appeals. The com plainant Smt. Anaro preferred Criminal Revision No. 427 of 1998 against the ac cused-appellant Sanjay. Sanjay did not prefer any appeal against the order of his conviction. Since the reference, criminal appeals and criminal revision in question arose out of the one and same judgment, all these matters were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judg ment.
(2.) THE prosecution story briefly stated is as follows: THE complainant Smt. Anaro (P. W. 1) is the unfortunate widow of deceased Ant Ram and mother of deceased Jaivir, Kal loo and Omvir. She was a resident of vil lage Ahrora where her husband Ant Ram was having agricultural land. Accused ap pellant Kirnu was the cousin brother of deceased Ant Ram. He was having litiga tion on the point of land which was going on in the court of Tehsildar Jansath, in which 2-12-1992 was fixed as the date of hearing. THE said date was adjourned to 10-12-1992. Accused appellant Kirnu for-ceably wanted to grab the land belonging to Ant Ram and for that purpose he had called some bad characters from outside the district, a few days before the date of occurrence of this case. The incident of this case took place on 4-12-1992 at about 5. 00 p. m. At that time the complainant Smt. Anaro, her hus band Ant Ran (deceased) and her three sons viz. deceased Jaivir, Omvir and Kal-loo as also the servant Surendra (P. W. 3) were returning to their house from their fields. Surendra (P. W. 3) was driving the buffalo-cart which was loaded with fodder of sugarcane. The deceased Ant Ram and Jaivir were sitting on the buffalo-cart. The complainant and his sons Omvir and Kal-loo were following the bullockcar on foot. Jabar Singh (P. W. 2) was also follow ing them. When all these persons came near the pumping set of accused-appellant Kirnu, Kirnu along with his sons Arnbrish and Sanjay, son-in-law Subhash and Rakesh and Narcndra emerged out from the sugarcane field of Kirnu. Subhash was armed with rifle, Ambrish was armed with a gun and the rest of the accused persons were armed with country- made pistols. Narendra stopped the bullock- cart, there upon, Kirnu, Ambrish, Sanjay, Rakesh and Subhash opened fire upon Ant Ram and his sons Jaivir, Omvir and Kalloo caus ing their instantaneous death on the spot. The complainant's servant Surendra (P. W. 3) also sustained gun shot injuries but escaped evil consequence of death. The complainant raised an alarm and attracted Jabar Singh (P. W. 2) and various other villagers. The accused-appellants and their associates ran away from the spot. The complainant thereafter came at her house. She got a report (Exh. Ka-1) about this occurrence written by Dhanpal of his village and took the same to the police station Jansath, which lay at a distance of about six kilometres from the scene of occurrence, at about 5. 50 p. m. on 4-12-1992. On the basis of the said F. I. R. Head Constable Jagraj Singh (P. W. 8) prepared Chik report and made proper entries in the general diary of the police station. Case Crime No. 149 under Sections 147/148/149/307/302, I. P. C. was registered and in vestigation followed. Inspector Bajrang Bahadur (P. W.), who was then working as S. H. O. Jansath immediately took up the investigation of the case in his hand. He immediately rushed to the scene of occurrence and got the inquest report prepared by S. I. Babu Ram Yadav in respect of the dead bodies of the deceased persons. After preparing necessary papers, he despatched the dead bodies of the deceased persons for post mortem examination to the district Head quarter Muzaffarnagar. He recovered blood stained and simple earth from near the dead bodies of Kalloo and Omvir and prepared recovery memo about the same. He searched out accused persons, but they were not available. He recorded the state ment of Smt. Anaro, Surendra and Jabar Singh on 5-12-1998. He carried out a detailed inspection of the scene of occur rence on 5-12-1998 and prepared a site plan Exh. Ka-30. He also recovered an empty cartridge from near the dead body of Kalloo and another cartridge of. 315 bore from near the sugarcane field of Kirnu. He also recovered a live cartridge and two empty cartridges of. 315 bore from Chak-road and prepared recovery memo about the same. He obtained processes under Sections 82/83, Cr. PC. against the accused persons. Accused Kirnu and Rakesh were arrested by S. I. Babu Ram. He tried to search out the accused Subhash, Sanjay, Ambrish and Narendra and for that pur pose he conducted raids on their houses. He sent case property for examination to the Chemical Examiner Agra on 26-12-1992. Thereafter he was transferred.
(3.) FURTHER investigation into the mat ter was conducted by S. I. Raghvendra Singh who filed charge-sheet Exh. Ka-37 against the accused-appellants Kirnu, Ambrish, Rakesh as also Sanjay and Sub-hash. After committal, the case came up for trial before Sri Kartar Singh, the then Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Muzaffar nagar who framed charges under Sections 148/302/307 read with Section 149, I. P. C against the accused-appellants Kirnu, Ambrish, Rakesh and Sanjay. The charges show that co-accused Subhash and Narendra were probably dead.;