IMPORTANT POINT
Where the conviction case rests on the testimony of the sole eye-witness the same must be wholly reliable.

JUDGMENT

K. Jayachandra Reddy, J. - This appeal pursuant to the special leave granted by this Court, has been filed by nine accused against their conviction under Section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. by the Sessions Court and confirmed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. All of them are convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. and Section 148 I.P.C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life and Rigorous Imprisonment for two years respectively. Among them, the first appellant Mangilal has also been convicted under Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six months and one year respectively. The sentences are directed to run concurrently.

2. The case which rests manly on the testimony of sole eye-witness is as follows. On 125-1979 the two deceased- Maththu, Raisingh and Miththus wife Anubai, P.W. 1 were going to Village Junajhira. They got down from the bus at Balkua and were going to Junajhira on foot. When they were passing in front of the tapri of the appellant Mangilal, all the appellants armed with weapons came outside the tapri of Mangilal and the appellants formed an unlawful assembly. Mangilal was armed with a pistol and others were armed with sharp-edged weapons like bow, arrows, axe and Denga etc. The appellants surrounded the two deceased. Accused No. 9 instigated accused No. 1 to fire a shot. Thereupon accused No.1 fired his pistol and the other appellants assaulted deceased No. 2 Raisingh. Raisingh and Miththu, the two deceased, died on the spot P.W. 1 managed to escape and went to the house of Raisingh at Village Balkua. She told her sister-in-law and mother-in-law about the incident. When she was returning to the place of occurrence P.W. 4 Narsingh told her that Maththu and Raisingh were dead and it was futile to go there. P.W. 1 instead of going to the dead bodies, returned and went to the police station and gave a report Ex. P. 1. The case was registered, F.I.R. was issued, the investigation was taken up, post-mortem was conducted on the two dead bodies and the accused were arrested and after completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was laid. The trial court relying on the sole testimony of the eye-witness convicted the appellants. The appellate Court confirmed the same but acquitted accused No. 4 Lal Singh who is aged about 15 years and convicted all the others., In this appeal the learned counsel submits that the case rests entirely on the sole testimony of P.W. 1, whose conduct is highly unnatural and her evidence is in conflict with the medical evidence. We do see considerable force in this submission. P.W. 1 deposed that she, her husband Miththu and Raisingh were going and when they reached the tapri of appellant No.1 and were passing in front of it, all the appellants emerged. She identified all the ten and that among them accused No.9 exhorted accused No.1 to kill. Whereupon when surrounded she tried to run away but she was not stopped. At any rate she stopped and witnessed the occurrence. On being exhorted by accused No. 9, accused No. 1 fired the gun and according to her one bullet hit deceased Raisingh and the other deceased Miththu, her husband. Thereafter some of the appellants were pushing the deceased and some of them were assaulting. She went to village Balkua and when she was returning to the place of occurrence, she met P.W. 4 Narsingh who told her that the deceased are already dead. On hearing this, instead of going to the scene of occurrence, she went to the police station and lodged a report. This is all the version given by her. She is cross-examined at length and she admitted that there was enmity between the appellants and her family and litigations were going oil.

3. It is well-settled that the testimony of the sole witness should be wholly reliable. If we test her evidence in the light of the medical evidence, we find it to be highly inconsistent. The Doctor, P.W. 2, who conducted the post-mortem

on the dead body of Raisingh, f