STATE OF U P Vs. RAMESHWAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) State of U.P. has filed this appeal against the judgment and order dated 29-11-1977 passed by Sri Ramji Lal II Additional Sessions Judge, Etah vide his judgment and order thereby purging the respondents Rameshwar Singh, Raja Ram, Sher Singh, Ishwari, Ram Chandra, Soran and Raghubar Singh of the charges under Section 396/147, 302 and 302/149 I.P.C. in S.T. No. 19 of 1976.

(2.) It is a case of dacotiy with murder in which seven persons from the side of complainant and one unknown dacoit were killed in shooting and one person from the side of complainant was injured. Complainant in the instant case is Babu Ram who lost his two sons, namely, Panna Lal and Tula Ram in the incident.

(3.) The facts as revealed by the prosecution are that on 27-9-1975, at about 5 p.m. in village Chandanpura, hamlet of village Bahoranpur, P.S. Sidhpura, District Etah, Babu Ram (complainant) along with Dinanath, Babu, Jaivir Singh Ram Sahai, Bankey Lat, was sitting at the chaupal of Bankey Lal exchanging friendly chat. Panna Lal son of the complainant and cousin Jayanti Prasad were conversing while sitting in front of the house of Pyare Singh. It was about that time that Kamta: Kachi, resident of the same village, all of a sudden appeared at the scene in the company of 8 or 9 miscreants from the eastern side whereas his brother Neksey alongwith 9-10 miscreants emerged from the side of the hut of Rameshwar Ahir and they launched a concerted attack at the house of Pyare. Miscreants, in the first instance, shot down Panna Lal son of the complainant. Jayanti Prasad slipped inside the house out of fear and on being chased, he climbed on the roof of the house. The dacoits chased Jayant Prasad and they shot down Jayant Prasad at the roof of the house. Thereafter, all the dacoits targetted the house of the uncle of Babu Ram (complainant) and they shot down Pyare, his wife Smt. Triveni and his grand son, namely, Dharmendra as well as nexts son of the complainant, namely, Tula Ram who was at that time present at the house of Pyare. On hearing the reports of firing, Dilla, alias, Ram Dayal brother of Pyare Singh was attracted to the scene and he also was preyed on by the dacoits. Smt. Ram Lali, wife of Jayant Prasad son of Pyare, succeeded to smuggle out of the house alongwith her son from the backdoor of the house whom also the dacoits were looking for. Dma Nath, a gun licensee of the village positioned himself vis-a-vis the dacoits and opened fire at the dacoits. Meanwhile, number of witnesses, namely, Dinanath, Bankey Lal, Ram Sahai, Jaivir Singh, Lala Ram, Lekhraj, Ramnath Todi, Mulayam, Kishan Pal and Ramlal etc. were attracted to the scene of occurrence. The dacoits continued their looting spree at the house of the uncle of Babu Ram complainant for about 2-3 hours and they made away with licensed gun of Pyare alongwith other valuables. In the incident, one of the dacoits, namely, Shiv Shankar as was obvious from the engraving on his hand, was also killed in the firing opened by Dinanath aforesaid. Some of the dacoits had also sustained injuries in the firing. According to the prosecution case, all the dacoits were attirred in Khaki uniform. In the incident, Ram Sahai, uncle of Babu Ram had also sustained injuries. All the accused persons were recognised by the witnesses excluding unknown dacoits.