HAR PD AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE two ap­pellants were police constables attached to Police Station Alapur in District Bu-daun and the incident in which Shanker Lal lost his life took place on Novem­ber 22, 1977 in which Munna Lal also received gun shot injuries. Both of them have been convicted under Section 302 I.P.C. read with Section 34 I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life apart from being convicted under Section 307 I.P.C. read with Section 34 I.P.C. and Section 394 I.P.C. as well as Section 397 I.P.C. and sentenced to un­dergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years on each of the two counts.

(2.) THE case of the Prosecution is that these two appellants who were on Gasht and Idd duty and had been deputed with one rifle (musket) and 50 cartridges (rounds) each for the purpose accosted Shanker Lal and Munna Lal at about 5 P.M. on the road near the culvert of village Simaria while those two persons Were going back to village Mai Buchan after making purchases at Budaun. Munna Lal was married to the daughter of one Budhpal of village Mai Buchan. He was in military service and was on leave at that time. He had made pur­chases at Budaun for his wife, daughter and father-in-law. Shanker Lal was known to him and had accompanied Munna Lal to Budaun, The appellants are said to have abused these two persons and to have forcibly snatched from them a sum of Rs. 1,500/- which was being carried by Munna Lal in his poc­ket as well as the articles purchased by the latter. They are then said to have asked these persons to go away. As they proceeded a few steps, the appellants are said to have challenged them both to become alert. The allegation further is that when the two persons turned to­wards the appellants both of them fired two shots each with their respective rifles towards Munna Lal and Shanker Lal, Munna Lal was struck on the face by one of these shots while the other missed him. He ran towards village Mai Buchan Shanker Lal fell down on being hit by the shot and died on the spot. The appellants are said to have gone away from the scene of the incident with the sum of Rs. 1,500/- but leaving behind other articles which they had snatched from the victims earlier

(3.) THE requisite papers were sent from Police Station Kotwali to Police Station Alapur the same day on the basis where­of a case was registered at that Police Station. Investigation followed and was made by P.W 11 Rajvir Singh who was the Station Officer at Police Station Alapur. He was present at the Police Station when the case was registered. He proceeded to the scene of the inci­dent where he took the necessary steps and sent the dead body of Shanker Lal for its post mortem examination which was made by P.W. 4 Dr. Hamidullah. The following post mortem injuries were found on it