RAJESH SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RAJESH Singh, appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 1014 of 1989 and Satendra Nath Shukla, appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 1989 have approached this Court questioning the validity of the judgement and order dated 26.04.1989, passed by IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Basti convicting both the accused appellants under Section 302/34 IPC and sentencing them to undergo imprisonment for life, in Session Trial No. 306 of 1982 Police Station Paikoli, district Basti.

(2.) PROSECUTION story as has been unfolded by the first informant Suresh Chand S/o Dengumal is to the effect that the first informant Suresh Chandra is resident of Rikab Ganga district Faizabad and deceased Girdhari was his brother. They were running business of brick kiln in villages Babhnan, district Gonda and Chakchai within P.S. Paikolia district Basti. On account of some dispute, the accused Satendra Nath @ Prakash alongwith one another had fired upon the first informant, almost a year back to the present occurrence. In that firing incident deceased Girdhari had been cited as a prosecution witness. At the time of occurrence a case under Section 307 IPC was in progress in Basti Court. According to the report on account of this enmity on 19.06.1981 in early hours of morning while the deceased and the first informant and their Munshi Pramatma Shukla on bicyles were going from brick kiln of Babhnan to Chakchai and had reached near sawmill of Gaffar in village Guar at about 6 AM all of a sudden the three accused came out from nearby road side pit, at that time the deceased was fifteen yards ahead to the first informant and his Munshi Parmatma Shukla. The first informant and Parmatma Shukla saw the accused Satendra Nath and Harnarayan armed with guns and accused Rajesh with knife. Rajesh caught hold of the cycle of deceased. Harnarayan and Satendra Nath with their guns fired upon the deceased. Rajesh too attacked the deceased with his knife, with the result of deceased falling on the spot and dying almost instantaneously. The alarm, raised by the first informant, attracted Bhawani Bhikh Shukla, Chandra Bali Shukla of village Chakchai and Sarv Jit of village Bhitiria, P.S. Chhapia, Gonda and others. The first information report was got scribed Sarv Jit and then the first information report Ext. Ka. 2 was registered at the police station Paikolia, which was at a distance of 4 KM, same day at 8.10 AM. A case with crime no. 74/81 under Section 302 IPC was registered against the three accused, named in the report.

(3.) THEREAFTER the Investigating Officer reached the place of occurrence, prepared panchayatname Ext. Ka. 3, collected the articles found with the deceased after preparing its Fard Ext. Ka. 4, sealed the body after preparing necessary papers, photolash Ext. Ka. 10 etc. and sent the same with necessary police papers for postmortem. During inspection of the spot the Investigating Officer found three empty cartridges and one knife, he took them in his possession after preparing necessary fards Exts. Ka. 5 and Ka. 7 in the said direction. He also collected plain and blood stained earth and also prepared the site plan Ext. Ka. 11. The autopsy on the body of deceased was conducted on 20.06.1981 at district mortuary. The Medical Officer found the following ante -mortem injuries: