SHAMEEM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL these four criminal appeals under Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'Cr.P.C.') have been preferred against the common judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 19.02.2003 passed by Sessions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar, in Sessions Trial No. 57 of 2000, State vs. Sher Mohammad @ Shera and five others, under Sections 302/506 (II)/120B of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'I.P.C.'), whereby accused/appellant-Shameem was convicted for the offence under Sec­tion 302 I.P.C., while rest of the accused/appellants Akbar, Masoom @ Furkan and Sultan @ Sheru @ Sher Mohammad have been convicted for an offence un­der Section 302 read with Section 34 I.P.C. and each of them has been sen­tenced for life imprisonment. All the ap­pellants were acquitted for the offence under Section 506 (II) I.P.C. By the im­pugned order the learned Sessions Judge had acquitted two other accused namely Sher Mohammad @ Shera and Mohd. Yaseen for the offence under Section 120B I.P.C. All the four convid/appellants have filed separate appeals before this Court; therefore, for the sake of convenience all the appeals are being decided by this common judgment.

(2.) THE prosecution story, in brief, is that the complainant Ram Kishore (PW-1) son of Kallu Singh lodged a typed writ­ten report (Ext. Ka.l) with the Police Sta­tion Kotwali, Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar alleging therein that on 05.10.1999 at about 7.00 p.m. he started from Ramnagar to Kashipur by Bus No. U.P.02A-0377 accompanied by Bharat Bhushan Juneja (PW-2), a resident of Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar. In the same bus a relative of Bharat Bhushan namely Kishan lal son of Nihal Chandra (a trader of fruits of Ramnagar) was also travelling and he was sitting 2-3 seats ahead of them. When the bus reached near village Dhanauri at about 8.00 p.m. four persons namely Shameem son of Abdul Majeed, Masoom @ Furkan son of Iklas, Sultan @ Sheru son of lal Mohammad and Akbar son of Abdul Majeed, residents of Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar, armed with country made pistols, came from the back side and sur­rounded Kishan lal and asked him that one Commission Agent (Arhati) was suf­fering great loss because of him. He (Kishan Lai) be done to death today. All those persons with intention to kill him fired shot from country made pistol at the temple (Kanpati) of Kishan lal, with the result he got injured in a pool of blood. According to the complainant, the fire was shot by accused Shameem. After the incident all the four persons got the bus stopped terrorizing the passengers by fir­ing in air. They also warned that if any­body tried to obstruct them, they would kill him and they made their escape good. The injured Kishan lal was brought to the hospital at Kashipur in an injured condition. On the basis of the written report Chick F.I.R. (Ext. Ka.10) was prepared at the Police Station at 09.10 p.m. on the same night and the case was registered as Crime No. 1056/1999 under Section 307/506 I.P.C. and an entry to that effect was made in the General Diary at Report No. 66.

(3.) S .I. Ashok Kumar (PW-5) of Po-Ice Station Sarita Vihar, Delhi wrote a let­ter -m 6.10.1999 to the Chief Medical Officer of Apollo Hospital for recording the statement of the injured during his life time but the injured was not found in a position to give his statement. The let­ter written by the Sub-Inspector is Ext. Ka.9 on record. After the injured Kishan lal succumbed to his injuries, S.I. Ashok Kumar (PW-5) wrote a letter to Autopsy Surgeon of AIIMS, New Delhi for con­ducting the autopsy on the body of the deceased vide Ext. Ka-4 on 17.10.1999 itself. The dead body of the deceased was identified by Darshan lal, brother of the deceased Kishan lal, at the mortuary of AIIMS Hospital. The police prepared a memo thereof vide Ext.Ka-5 on 17.10.1999 and Ext.Ka-6.