BALBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant-Balbir Singh has come up in appeal against the judgment and order dated 12th March, 1981 passed by Sri H. C. Lal, the then II Additional Sessions Judge, Etah in Sessions Trial No. 166 of 1980. He has been convicted under Sections 394 and 412, I..P.C. The sentence of life imprisonment has been awarded for the former offence and five year's rigorous imprisonment for the latter. Both the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) The incident took place on 24-12-1979 at about 3 a.m. in village Nidhauli Kalan, Police Station Nidhauli Kala, District Etah and the report was lodged on 24-12-1979 at 4.45 a.m. by Dr. Kishan Pal Singh PW-2. Dr. Ratan Lal Jain was the resident of Block No. 1 of town Nidhauli Kalan. He was a medical practitioner. Three or four miscreants entered his house in between the night of 23/24-12-1979 at about 3 a.m. from the southern side and successively opened shots, killing him (Dr. Ratan Lal Jain) and his son Anil Kumar in the southernmost room of his house where a lantern was glowing at the time of the incident. Thereafter, they gained entry in another room from the eastern window, overpowered Smt. Virmati-wife of Dr. Ratan Lal Jain and looted cash ornaments and S.B.B.L. gun of the doctor therefrom.

(3.) Informant Dr. Kishan Pal Singh PW-2 was also a medical practitioner by profession and in those days he was living in the house of Prem Chand, adjacent to the house of Dr. Ratan Lal Jain towards east. On hearing the sound of gunshot, Dr. Kishan Pal Singh PW-2 and his compounder who used to live with him, came out with their torches. They spotted 3-4 persons coming out of the house of Dr. Ratan Lal Jain and running away towards western side. Two of them had guns. Meanwhile, he also heard shrieks of the wife of Dr. Ratan Lal Jain and when he went inside, he (Dr. Kishan Pal Singh) found Dr. Ratan Lal Jain and his son Anil Kumar lying dead in the room with gunshot injuries. Smt. Virmati informed him that 3-4 miscreants whose faces she had seen in the light of the lantern, had entered the house from towards the south and had killed her husband and son by opening fire through the southern window. She further told him that after entering the house from the eastern window, they carried away the licensed S.B.B.L. gun and some ornaments, valuables, clothes etc. from there.