KARAM SINGH AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two appeals, preferred under Section 374 of the Code of Crimi­nal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred as Cr.P.C.), are filed by the same accused/appellants and directed against the same judgment and order dated 30th of May 2002, passed by the then Sessions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar, in Sessions trial No. 44 of 2000, whereby accused/appellants Karam Singh and Shanker Singh have been convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred as I.P.C.), and each one of the convicts has been sen­tenced to undergo imprisonment for life. Criminal Appeal No. 141 of 2002 is re­ceived through the Superintendent Sub-Jail, Haldwani, while the Criminal Appeal No. 137 of 2002, is filed by the counsel of the appellants.

(2.) HEARD Mr. Lalit Miglani, Amicus Curiae on behalf of the appellants and Mr. Prabhakar Joshi, Brief Holder for the respondent State.

(3.) THE Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Nagar, on receipt of charge sheet, after giving necessary copies to the accused, as re­quired under Section 207 of Cr.P.C., ap­pears to have committed the case to the court of Sessions, for trial. Learned Ses­sions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar on 22.06.2000, after hearing the parties, framed charge of offence punishable un­der Section 302 read with Section 34 of I.P.C. against all the three accused namely Karam Singh, Shanker Singh and Bilso Devi. All the three pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. On this, prosecution got examined P.W. 1 Ramesh Prasad (declared hostile); P.W. 2 Harbans Singh (declared hostile); P.W. 3 Lakhvinder Singh (declared hostile); P.W. 4. Anand Singh (declared hostile); P.W. 5 Janardhan (declared hostile); P.W. 6 Paramjeet Singh (complainant); P.W. 7 Head Constable Gopal Singh; P.W. 8 Dr. S.C.S. Koranga (who con­ducted the postmortem examination on the dead bodies); P.W. 9 Inspector Brij Pal Singh Malik (who investigated the crime) and P.W. 10 Shyam Pal Singh (who accompanied Head Constable Gopal Singh, and in whose presence the check report (Ext. A -23) was prepared on the basis of the F.I.R.). The oral and documentary evidence was put to the accused, under Section 313 of Cr.P.C., in reply to which they alleged the prosecu­tion evidence to be false. The accused further stated that they have been falsely implicated in the crime due to enmity. In defence, D.W. 1 Constable Jagat Singh; D.W. 2 Jagdish Singh and D.W. 3 Ram Vilas were got examined. After hearing the parties, the trial court found accused/appellants Karam Singh and Shanker Singh guilty of charge of offence punish­able under Section 302 read with Section 34 of I.P.C. However, the trial court opined that the prosecution failed to prove the charge as against accused Bilso Devi, beyond reasonable doubt, and ac­quitted her. After hearing the parties on sentence, each one of the convicts was sentenced to imprisonment for life. Ag­grieved by said judgment and order dated 30th of May 2002, passed by Ses­sions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar, in Sessions Trial No. 44 of 2000, these ap­peals were filed by the accused/appellants.