SHAMBHOO SHARAN PANDEY Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal No. 2079 of 1986 is by Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and his son Kaushal Kumar Pandey against their conviction and sentence for imprisonment of life under Section 120-B/302 I.P.C. The connected Criminal Appeal No. 2128 of 1986 has been preferred by accused convict Dinesh Chandra Misra who has been sentenced to imprisonment for life under Section 120-B/302 I.P.C. It may be mentioned here that one more accused Ranjeet Singh was also tried but since he died during the pendency of trial his case stood abated.

(2.) The prosecution case in short was that deceased Shiv Harsh Upadhyay was manager of Kisan Degree College, Basti. He was shot at about 9.30 p.m. on 31-7-1980 near Kisan Degree College, Civil Lines, Basti. A telephonic message from Sri Chandra Deo Dwivedi (P.W.3) was received at police station Kotwali at 9.36 p.m. that Sri Shiv Harsh Upadhyay has been shot in front of his house and he has been sent to hospital. Injuries of Sri Shiv Harsh Upadhyay were medically examined at 9.45 p.m. and information was sent for recording his dying declaration but before the same could be recorded Sri Upadhyay breathed his last and died at 10.05 p.m. in the same night. Thereafter the case was converted under section 302 I.P.C. On a request made by the District Magistrate, Basti, Sri Ganga Prasad Dwivedi, Deputy Secretary, State of U.P. made a request to Inspector General, C.B., C.I.D. to get the case investigated through C.B., C.I.D. During investigation it was found that appellant Shambhoo Sharan Pandey was officiating as Principal of Kisan Degree College (herei-nafter referred to as the 'Degree College'). Deceased Shiv Harsh Upadhyay was Manager of the said Degree College. Sri Surendra Nath Dubey (P.W.3) was appointed as Principal in place of appellant Shambhoo Sharan Pandey. In the capacity of manager the deceased gave a telegram Ext. Ka-2 to Sri S. N. Dubey, Lecturer, Rajasthan University, Jaipur to join as Principal of the Degree College, Whereupon Sri S.N. Dubey joined the Degree College as Principal but accused appellant Sri Shambhoo Sharan Pandey did not hand over the complete charge of the office of Principal despite efforts and requests of Sri S.N. Dubey. The matter was then finally reported to the manager Sri Upadhyay who directed the stoppage of pay of Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and then in his order dated 28-7-80 he found a prima facie case of misappropriation against Sri Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and further directed recovery of embezzled amount from him. It is the further case of prosecution that Sri Upadhyay wrote a letter to the Secretary of the College requesting that an urgent meeting be called for suspending the appellant Shambhoo Sharan Pandey. The appellant Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and his son Kaushal Kumar Pandey were thus highly aggrieved on account of actions taken by deceased Manager, Sri Upadhyay. In short, as per prosecution case the appellants Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and Kaushal Kumar Pandey had a strong motive to eliminate deceased manager Sri Upadhyay and in order to achieve this object they had hatched a criminal conspiracy with Dinesh Chandra Misra and Ranjeet Singh to commit murder of Sri Upadhyay. Consequently on 31-7-80 at about 9.30 p.m. Dinesh Chandra Misra and Ranjeet Singh both fired at deceased Sri Upadhyay in front of his house and at that time appellant Shambhoo Sharan Pandey and Kaushal Kumar Pandey were seen standing on a scooter near the place of incident.

(3.) In order to prove its case the prose-cution produced before the trial Court as many as 20 witnesses. They were P.W.1, Sri Chandra Deo Dwivedi, P.W.2, Shiv Pujan Dubey, P.W.3, S.N.Dubey, P.W.4 Chandrika Prasad Advocate, P.W.5, Jabbar (Rikshaw puller), P.W.6 Head Constable Bodh Nath Tripath, P.W.7 Manik Ram Misra, P.W.8 Raj Bahadur Singh, P.W.9 Ram Sumer Yadav P.W.10, Constable Ram Bahadur Singh, P.W.11 Constable Vikramaditya, P.W.12 Dr.B.P.Shukla, P.W.13 Sri Ram Yagya Singh, Magistrate who conducted identification parade, P.W.14, Ram Balak, P.W.15 Sri Onkar Nath Shukla, P.W.16, Ramji Ram, P.W.17, Chandra Mohan Misra, P.W.18 Budal Ram Ballastic Expert P.W.19 Anwarul Haq, and P.W.20, C.P.Saxena (Inspector C.B., C.I.D.)