- (1.)The appeal on hand is preferred by State of J&K impugning the judgement of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Doda dated 24-06-2010 whereby acquitting Mohd. Amin S/o Abdul Majid Malik R/o Thalela, the respondent herein for the charges punishable under Section 302 RFC and 7/27 Arms Act. It needs to be mentioned here that the other two co-accused of Mohd. Amin, namely, Mohd. Ashraf S/o Mohd. Shafi R/o Chiralla and Shokat Ali S/o Mohd. Zarif R/o Sun-arthawa, Tehsil Thathri died before their case could be committed for trial, as such, their names were deleted by the trial court. It is only Mohd. Amin, who faced the trial and has now earned acquittal.
(2.)Since Mohd. Amin was confined in jail in connection with other case, his service was effected through Superintendent, Central Jail, Kot Bhalwal, Jammu. As he went unrepresented, High Court Legal Services Authority has engaged the services of one Ms. Mudasir Yousuf, Advocate, the legal retainer, to defend his case. Trial court record has also been received.
(3.)In brief, the case of the prosecution is that on 01.07.2003, Police Post Karara received an information from a reliable source that during the previous night, certain unknown persons had shot dead Javed Iqbal S/o Mohd. Yousuf Khan R/o Sunarthawa with certain fire arms and his dead body was lying on the spot. On this information, formal FIR bearing No. 33/2003 for the offences punishable under Section 302 RPC and 7/27 Arms Act came to be registered with Police Station, Thathri and during investigation, it revealed that on 30.07.2003, deceased Javed Iqbal was sitting on the bed in his kitchen along with his wife, when at about 8.30 pm, some assailants came there and fired shots from their AK-47 rifle, which hit different parts of the body of the deceased. Ultimately, they fled away from the spot. Subsequently, the respondent and aforesaid two persons, namely Mohd. Ashraf and Shokat Ali were shown to be involved in the present occurrence. As already said, Mohd. Ashraf and Shokat Ali died, the challan was filed against Mohd. Amin only, who was charged for the offence punishable under Section 302 RFC and 7/27 Arms Act.