JUDGMENT

Harjit Singh Bedi, J. —

The prosecution story is as under:

1.On the 19th June 1990, the two deceased Rajmohan and Niranjan Singh had gone to Jammusarkala to buy sugar and while they were returning to their village and were passing through the nearby forest, they were severely beaten by the six accused with “lathis”, “lohangis” and “farsas”. Information of the incident was given by Maina Banjara PW3 to Daulat Singh PW4 and Sumer Singh PW10. Sumer Singh and Maina Banjara and several others then returned to the spot whereafter Niranjan Crl. Appeal No. 1297/2008 Singh and Rajmohan (injured) made oral dying declarations that they had been beaten by the six accused with the aforementioned weapons. The two died a short while later. Intimation of the incident was also received in Police Station Berasia at 3.40 p.m. by telephone and was recorded in Ex.P-3 on which Sub- Inspector O.P.Katiyar PW13 reached the place of incident along with a police force and found the dead bodies. A Ruqa was recorded at 4.40 p.m. at the site and on its basis a formal FIR was registered in the Police Station. The dead bodies were thereafter dispatched to the hospital for post-mortem which was performed by Dr. R.K.Sharma PW1 who found 28 injuries on each of the two deceased. During the course of the investigation, the accused were arrested and on the basis of their disclosure statements, the weapons of offence were also recovered. The police also ascertained that the two parties were very closely related inter-se and that there was gross enmity between them with respect to certain Crl. Appeal No. 1297/2008 agricultural land. On the completion of the investigation, the accused were charged for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC as they pleaded not guilty, they were brought to trial.

2.The prosecution in support of his case relied primarily on the eye - witness account of Feran Singh PW5 and on the oral dying declarations made by the two deceased to Daulat Singh PW4, Harnath Singh PW9, Sumer Singh PW10 and Shivraj Singh PW11. In addition, the prosecution relied on the recoveries made pursuant to the disclosure statements of the accused. The prosecution case was then put to the accused and the plea taken was of serious enmity on account of a land dispute between them and Daulat Singh PW4 as the latter was keen to take over their agricultural land. The trial court recorded a comprehensive judgment and discussed the evidence under two broad heads (1) the eye witness evidence of Feran Singh PW5 and (2) the circumstantial evidence which included the motive Crl. Appeal No. 1297/2008 behind the incident and the dying declaration of the deceased and the recoveries of the weapons of offence. The Court then examined the evidence of the prosecution in the background of the motive and observed that Maharaj Singh accused was the son of Balwant Singh from his first wife and the other accused were sons of Maharaj Singh whereas PW4 Daulat Singh and PW9 Harnath Singh were also sons of Balwant Singh though from a second wife and Feran Singh PW5 was son of Daulat Singh PW and Shivraj Singh PW11 was son of Sumer Singh PW10, meaning thereby all the witnesses belonged to one large group. The Court also observed that from the evidence on record, it was amply clear that the relations between the two sets of brothers were very strained and several criminal litigations inter-se them and pertaining to a land dispute had started in the year 1984 and were subsisting even on the date of murder and that the periodic quarrels between them had caused great friction in the family. The Court then went on to Crl. Appeal No. 1297/2008 examine the prosecution story and recalled that two different stories had been projected by the prosecution, first, that a report had been filed by Daulat Singh PW at the Police Station immediately after the crime had beencommitted at about 1 p.m. and the second that information had been received on telephone as per Ex.P3 a