- (1.) Convicted of offences under Sections 302/34 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment and imposed with a fine of Rs.1,000/- and further directed to undergo one year of simple imprisonment in default thereof, vide judgment dated 28.07.2004 passed by Special Judge SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act Cases, Merta, the appellants namely Sita Ram (A-1), Chuni Lal (A-2) and Mahendra Singh (A-3), have approached this court. Since both these appeals arise out of the same impugned judgment, therefore, they are being decided by this common judgment.
(2.) Briefly the prosecution case is that on 07.05.2003 at about 3:45 AM, Ladu Singh (P.W.1) submitted a written report (Ex.P/1) before Amarjeet Singh Bedi (P.W.19), the SHO Police Station Merta City. Ladu Singh (P.W.1) claimed that on 06.05.2003 around 8' clock at night, his grand-son, Ajeet Singh (the deceased in the present case) was at his house. A-3, Mahendra Singh, came to his house to fetch Ajeet Singh. At that time, his daughter-in-law, Saya Kanwar (P.W.12) and granddaughter, Angrage Kanwar (P.W.6), were in the house. A- 3 told Ajeet Singh to come with him as he wanted to go for answering the call of nature. Since Ajeet Singh did not come back home by 9:30 10:00 PM, he, along with Om Singh and Bhagwan Singh, went out searching for him. However, they could not either locate Ajeet Singh, or A-3 in the village. They met Mangi Lal Meghwal (P.W.13), who told them that he had seen Ajeet Singh being taken on a motorcycle by A-1, A-2 and A-3. The said motorcycle was being driven by A-1. They were travelling towards the village Ren. He was also informed that Ishwar Singh (P.W.5) had also seen the accused-appellants taking Ajeet Singh with them. Furthermore, according to him, he took Om Singh, Bhagwan Singh and Narpat Singh (P.W.10), in a jeep belonging to Jassaram, and went out looking for Ajeet Singh. Around 2 O'clock at night, they reached a place called Dhonigaur. At the place, they saw A-1, A-2 and A-3 riding on a motorcycle at a great speed. They tried to stop the accused-appellants. However, they did not stop. Since their suspicion was aroused, they stopped the jeep and searched for Ajeet Singh. Near the Dhonigaur Mazar (a holy shrine belonging to the Muslim Community), they saw a man lying in blood. When they went near the body, they realized that it was his grand-son, Ajeet Singh. At that time, Ajeet Singh was wearing an undershirt and half- pant, and his body was lying face down. They noticed that he had suffered injuries on the left side of his head from which blood had oozed out. They discovered that Ajeet Singh had already expired. Near the body, a few pieces of stones were lying soaked in blood. According to him, his grand-son, Ajeet Singh, has been killed by A-1, A-2 and A-3 due to an animosity. He informed the police that the dead body is still lying near the Mazar. On the basis of this report, the police chalked out a formal FIR, FIR No.142/2003 (Ex.P/2) for offences under Sections 302/34 IPC.
(3.) In order to buttress its case, the prosecution examined twenty-one witnesses and submitted forty-four documents. The defence, in turn, examined two witnesses and submitted nine documents. After going through the oral and documentary evidence, the learned Judge convicted and sentenced the appellants as mentionedabove. Hence, these appeals before this court. Mr. Vineet Jain and Mr. Gaurav Singh, the learned counsel for the appellants, have raised the following contentions before this court: firstly, the learned Judge has failed to appreciate the evidence in proper perspective.;