MADAN PAL Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a criminal appeal against the judgment and order dated 6-8-1980 passed by Sri Ikramul Bari, the then 17th Additional Sessions Judge, Bijnor in Session Trial No. 301 of 1979 State v. Madan Pal and another, whereby he convicted the accused appellant No. 1 Madan Pal of the offence under Section 307, I.P.C. and convicted Mahi Pal accused appellant No. 2 of the offence under Section 307 read with Section 34, I.P.C. and sentenced each one of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500.00 and in the default of payment of fine to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of six months.

(2.) I have heard learned counsel for the parties. I have also gone through the record.

(3.) The prosecution story is that Anoop Singh P.W. 2 and the accused-appellants who are his nephews lived in Village Hempur, P. S. Chandpur, that about an year before the occurrence the accused-appellants had stolen cash and a watch belonging to the daughter of Anoop Singh, that the relatives had decided that the accused would return the watch and the money but the accused-appellants did not carry out that direction till the date of the occurrence, instead they nurtured animosity towards Anoop Singh since then and used to threaten him with dire consequences, that they used to tell Anoop Singh that on getting an opportunity they would finish him. It is the further case of the prosecution that in the night of 23/24-5-1979 Anoop Singh and his wife Phool Wati P.W. 3 were sleeping at their Baithak, that Arjun Singh was covered from neck to foot by rug, that a lantern was burning, that at about mid night the accused-appellants came to the Baithak of Anoop Singh, that the sound of their steps woke up Anoop Singh, that Mahipal accused-appellant exhorted Madan Pal accused-appellant to shoot, that Anoop Singh screamed, that Madan Pal, accused-appellant at once fired his postol and shot at him, that he was injured in the chest and in the finger by that shot, that the accused-appellants were recognised by Anoop Singh and Phool Wati in the light of the lantern, that the alarm and the report of the shot attracted the neighbours who rushed to the place of the occurrence and saw the accused-appellants running away.