STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH Vs. BHAGWANT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondents herein were charged for offences punishable under Section 302 and under Section 302 read with Section 34, IPC by the VIth Additional Sessions Judge, Badaun for having committed the murder of one Jagan son of Jaspal Singh (PW-1) on 19-9-1982 at about 10 a.m. by the use of fire-arms and lathis. On appeal, the High Court of Allahabad allowed the same and set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on the respondents and acquitted them.

(2.) It is against the said judgment of the High Court, the State of U.P. is in appeal.

(3.) Brief facts necessary for the disposal of this appeal are : There was some dispute between the respondents and Jaspal Singh who has been examined as PW-1 in this case in regard to certain land originally owned by one Naraini. PW-1 claimed that he was in possession of the said land on batai basis whereas the respondents claimed that they were in possession of the said land by virtue of the agreement of sale executed by the said Narainis heirs after her death. The further case of the prosecution is that at the relevant point of time PW-1 had grown some nuts and millets which were ready for harvest and on the date of incident PW-1 and his son deceased Jagan came to know from one Gulfam that the accused persons were uprooting the standing crop in the said field, therefore, PW-1 and the deceased went to the field whereupon they found these respondents uprooting the crop. When deceased told the respondents that they are in possession of the land on the basis of batai and if the dispute is settled in favour of the respondents they would pay the batai to them, whereupon the prosecution alleges the respondents by saying that they would teach a lesson. A-3 using the double barrel gun which he was holding fired two shots at the deceased which injured him and then the deceased started running away from the place. The gun shots received by the deceased made him fall down and at that time it is the case of the prosecution that PW-1 was about 50 paces away from his son. The further case of the prosecution is that the accused 1, 2 and 4 assaulted the fallen deceased with their sticks and A-3 again fired two shots from his double barrel gun which caused the instantaneous death of the deceased. The incident in question was also noticed by PW-2 Ram Avtar and PW-4 Bhajan Lal who happened to be working in their own fields nearby. A complaint in this regard was lodged by PW-1 at about 12.20 p.m. at Islamnagar Police Station about 8 kms. away from the place of incident. It is based on the said complaint and after the investigation a charge-sheet was filed and in the trial, as stated above, the respondents were convicted wherein A-3 was convicted for offence punishable under Section 302, IPC and A-1, A-2 and A-4 were convicted for offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34, IPC and were awarded imprisonment for life.