KRISHNA KUMAR Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ACCUSED Krishna Kumar has come up in appeal and challenges the correctness of the judgment passed on November 13, 1975 by the learned Sessions Judge, Sri Ganganagar convicting and sentencing him as under:

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the prosecution case is that PW 13 Mam Kauri was married to Basti Ram and from him she gave birth to three sons Ugmi Ram, PW 3 Asha Rare, PW 5 Hajari Ram and one daughter Mst. Chando. PW 2 Rustome Hind, aged about 11 years (in October, 1975) is the son of PW 3 Asha Ram The appellant Krishna Kumar is the son of Smt. Chando and thus grandson of PW 13 Smt. Mam Kauri. Smt. Mam Kauri left her husband Bastiram and started living with the deceased victim Khan Mohammed as his keep. Khan Mohammed adopted Rustome Hind as his son. Rustome Hind, thus, was living with him. Khan Mohammed migrated from Sri Ganganagar to Anoopgarh, where he purchased some land for cultivation The appellant was not hippy with Khan Mohammed as he was keeping his maternal grand mother (Smt. Mam Kauri) as his keep On March 22, 1974, Khan Mohammed and Rustome Hind came from Annopgarh to Sri Ganganagar, and remained there through out the day. In the evening on that day, Khan Mohammed and Rustome Hind went to the Railway Station, Sri Ganganagar to board a train to go to Annopgarh. They hid purchased tickets for the journey. At about 8.30 p.m. while they were standing on the platform and the train was just to arrive, a shot was fired at Khan Mohammed, which hit him on the lateral aspect of the left side of his chest. Khan Mohammed fell down. The culprit took to heels. The Police Constables of Railway Police, viz., PW 1 Sri Kishan Head Constables, PW 9 Mohan Lai, PW 11 Harisingh and PW 12 Gurudayal Singh, who were there on patrolling duty on the platform, became active. PW 11 Harisingh and PW 12 Gurudayal Singh ran after the culp it. The culprit, while fleeing away, dropped a pistol on the platform. Both these constables ran after the culprit upto the market situate out -side the railway station, but could not catch him. The culprit mounted on the front bar of a bicycle which the other culprit had kept ready for his escape. Both the culprits thereafter paddled the bicycle and disappeared. Police Constable Harisingh and Gurudayal Singh returned to the platform and found Khan Mohammed lying in an injured condition with blood oozing out from his wound. PW 1 Sri Krishna and other police constables took Khan Mohammed to the General Hospital, but before they could reach there, Khan Mohammed passed away. Shri Kishan drew up report Ex. P. 1 of the occurrence and sent it through PW 11 Harisingh to the Railway Police Station, Hanumangarh. He also informed the Station House Officer, Hanumangarh on telephone of the incident. The S.H.O. Jugrajsingh (PW 14). arrived at Police Station Ganganagar at about 5.00 a m. on March 23, 1974. He inspected the site and prepared the site plan. He also seized and sealed pistol (Article 1) lying a few feet from the place of incident. The postmortem examination over the victim's dead body was conducted by the Medical Jurist Dr. Goyal (PW 15). He noticed the following injuries on the dead body:

(3.) BEFOE proceeding further, it would be proper to briefly analyse the evidence which the prosecution adduced in order to establish the charges against the appellant. The evidence adduced consists of the following sets: