Judgment :

Dr. Mukundakam Sharma

1. These two appeals arise out of a common judgment and order dated 08.11.2006 passed by the High Court of Allahabad dismissing the appeals filed by the appellants herein against their conviction and sentence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short the "IPC").

2. Shri Prithvi Pal Singh alias Chandra Prakash Singh, son of the deceased had lodged a report at the Police Station Maharajpur, District Kanpur contending, inter alia, that on 29.07.1977 while he alongwith his father, Vikramaditya Singh and one Sri Jagannath Dubey were coming back to their village by Kanpur Allahabad Passenger Train from the Court of Munsif Hawali, Kanpur where a litigation was pending between his father Vikramaditya Singh and Sri Ganesh Singh and others, they alighted at the Rooma Halt Station for the purpose of going to their house. Further allegation was that the accused Sri Shrawan Kumar, Sri Patai @ Krishna Kumar and Brij Kishore, who were armed with country made pistols, accosted the deceased.

3. It was alleged that the accused Ganesh Singh, who was travelling in the same train but in a different compartment, after alighting from the train exhorted that it is the opportune time to eliminate Sri Vikramaditya Singh, the deceased, whereupon the present appellants Brij Kishore and Patai @ Krishna Kumar dragged his father from the platform of the station to a place under a Peepal tree whereupon Sri Shrawan Kumar and Ganesh Singh put their country made pistols at the deceased and fired shots consequent to which Vikramaditya Singh died instantaneously. On hue and cry having been made by Prithvi Pal Singh @ Chandra Prakash Singh -the informant and Sri Jagannath Dubey, Sri Iqbal, Sri Mahendra Singh, Sri Ram Prasad Sharma and some other persons of village Gangaganj came to the place of occurrence and saw the appellants running away from that place. It is further alleged that Prithvi Pal Singh had written the First Information Report at the spot itself and had submitted the same to the Police Station wherein an entry was made.

4. After registering a case, investigation was conducted during the course of which all the accused persons were arrested. On completion of the investigation, a chargesheet was filed against all the accused persons under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. As many as 8 prosecution witnesses were examined which included, among others, Prithvi Pal Singh, P.W. 1, Jagannath Dubey, P.W. 3, Sri Iqbal Singh, P.W. 4. Sri Girja Shanker Yadav, the Sub-Inspector who had started the investigation was examined as P.W. 6. Dr. R.S. Pundrik who had conducted the post mortem examination on the dead body was examined as PW-7. The accused persons were examined under Section 313 of the CrPC and on completion of the trial, the arguments of the counsel appearing for the parties were heard.

5. The learned trial Court, after appreciating the evidence on record passed a judgment and order dated 12.03.1980 finding all the accused persons guilty of the charge under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and convicted all of them under the aforesaid sections. By a separate order, they were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

6. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order passed by the trial Court, three separate appeals were filed by the accused persons -one by Shrawan Kumar and Brij Kishore and the others by Ganesh Singh & Patai @ Krishna Kumar respectively. The High Court after considering the entire record upheld the order of conviction and sentence and dismissed all the appeals.

7. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order passed by the High Court, the accused Ganesh Singh and Sri Patai filed an appeal in this Court which was registered as Criminal Appeal No. 1718 of 2007 whereas the accused Brij Kishore filed a separate appeal which was registered in this Court as Criminal Appeal No. 1719 of 2007. As the facts and legal issues urged in both these appeals are s