STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH Vs. JAGESHWAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eleven persons were tried by the learned Sessions Judge, Fatehpur, principally for offences under Sections 302 and 396 of the Penal Code. One of them, Manohar, was acquitted while the remaining 10 were sentenced to death. By a judgment, which leaves much to be desired, the High Court of Allahabad. set aside the order of conviction and sentence and acquitted all the accused. These appeals are by the State of U. P. against the order of acquittal recorded by the High Court.

(2.) In support of the charges levelled against the accused, the prosecution relied upon the evidence of five witnesses who claim to have identified them. These witnesses are:Sundi (P. W. 1), Shea Nandan (P. W. 12), Ram Bali (P. W. 18), Mani Prashad (P. W. 19) and Sham Behari (P. W. 27). In addition to the evidence of these eye witnesses, the prosecution relied upon certain recoveries made from or at the instance of the accused and the evidence of the Ballistic Expert, Shariq Alvi (P. W. 32).

(3.) The occurrence took place at about midnight between the 28th and 29th Oct., 1970 in a village called Chak Quazipur. Four persons, Ayodhya, his two sons Amar Singh and Kanchan, and a neighbour Thakurdin, who were sleeping in the open space in front of their house, were shot dead on that night by a large group of thirteen or fourteen persons. Sundi, Ayodhya's wife, was sleeping inside the house with another child of theirs. She got up on hearing the sound of gun-shots but was unable for some time to go out of the house since the door was bolted from outside. In the meanwhile, some of the accused entered her house by jumping over the roof and assaulted her. They took away a gun, snatched her ear-rings and decamped with sundry articles from the house. Eventually, when she came out, she saw the dead bodies of her husband, their two sons and the neighbour Thakurdin. She lodged the First Information Report (Ex. Ka-1) on the afternoon of the 29th in which she mentioned the names of three accused:Durga, Sheo Balak and Mata Din.