Prakash Tatia, J. - (1.) This appeal is against the judgment and order passed by the learned Sessions Judge in Sessions Case No.9/81 dated 11.8.1982 by which the learned court below convicted three appellants Bhimla @ Bhinya Ram, Hanuman and Ram Swaroop for offence under Section 302/34 and 307/34 IPC and also under Section 25(1)(k) of the Arms Act. All the accused have been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for offence under Section 302/34 IPC, seven years RI, for charge under Section 307/34 IPC with fine of Rs.100/-on each and in default thereof to undergo 15 days RI. The appellants have been sentenced to undergo two years RI for charge under Section 25(1)(k) of the Arms Act. Sentences are made to run concurrently. Total 13 accused were before the trial court, but rest of the 10 have been acquitted, therefore, three appellants have preferred this appeal.
(2.) Background for the dispute as per the appellants is that accused party had agricultural land in the State of Haryana whereas the complainant's party had land at Padampur in District Sri Ganganagar of Rajasthan. The accused party and complainant party entered into an agreement for exchange of their lands and furtherance to that the appellants accused party gave their land of Haryana to complainant party and complainant party is in possession of the said Haryana land. The accused party was given possession of the land at village Padampur of Ganganagar District, but the complainant party wanted to again take possession of the property of Padampur from the accused party. In that sequence, first incident occurred on 31st May, 1980. In that appellants party's Sada Sukh and Devi Lal were murdered by the complainant party, upon which, challan was filed against three principal accused Mukhtiyar Singh, Malkiyat Singh and Gurdeep Singh for offences under Sections 302 and 302/34 IPC. All above three persons of complainant party Mukhtiyar Singh, Malkiyat Singh and Gurudeep Singh were convicted by the trial court for offence under Section 302 and 302/34 IPC. However, the complainant party's Mukhtiyar Singh and Malkiyat Singh were acquitted by the High Court in appeal whereas conviction of Gurudeep Singh was maintained and according to learned counsel for the appellants, Gurudeep Singh served sentence of 15 years and by now he also has been released.
(3.) Before this incident occurred in the evening of 18th Oct., 1980 for which present case was registered in the morning of 18th Oct., 1980 itself at 7.30 or 8.00 AM the accused-appellants' party's Tahal Singh was murdered. In the same evening i.e., on 18th July, 1980 in another incident complainant party's Mastan Singh was killed and because of this, after investigation, challan was filed against the present appellants as well as seven other persons in the trial court. According to learned counsel for the appellants accused party's one person Hansraj also died in the incident, but police did not record appellants accused party's report for murder of Hansraj by the members of the present complainant party. However, according to learned counsel for the appellants, PW-11 Modan Singh in his statement in the trial court in the present case admitted that he fired upon Hansraj Singh who suffered injuries and postmortem report of Hansraj Singh has been submitted by the prosecution in this case and doctor also gave his statement which clearly proved that Hansraj Singh died because of gun shot injuries and evidence on record proved that his body was found near the area where the complainant party's Mastan Singh died. The police instead of registering a case against the culprits who committed murder of Hans Raj Singh filed challan against the accused who were not present on spot where the Mastan Singh was murdered.;