IMPORTANT POINT
When two out of four injured witnesses have been examined and their evidence is found to be natural and trustworthy, non-examination of other two injured witnesses is not fatal to prosecution.

JUDGMENT

C. NAGAPPAN, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These three appeals are preferred against the common judgment dated 27.01.2012 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal no.486-DB of 2004 and Criminal Appeal no.547-DB of 2004.

3. The appellants herein are six in numbers and were tried along with others for the charges under Sections 148, 149, 302, 307, 449, 323 and 216 of Indian Penal Code and in addition under Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 against appellant Naresh and the Trial Court found them guilty of the offence under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced them each to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.10,000/-each with default sentence; further found them guilty for the offence under Section 307 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced them each to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 8 years and to pay fine of Rs.5000/-each with default sentence; further found them guilty for the offence under Section 449 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced them each to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 5 years and to pay fine of Rs.3000/-each with default sentence; further found them guilty for the offence under Section 148 IPC and sentenced them each to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years each and found them guilty for the offence under Section 323 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced them each to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 9 months. In addition appellant Naresh was found guilty for the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.2000/-with default sentence. The Trial Court directed the substantive sentences to run concurrently. Challenging the conviction and sentence the accused preferred appeals in Criminal Appeal no.486-DB of 2004 and Criminal Appeal no.547-DB of 2004 and the High Court allowed the appeal preferred by accused Subhash and acquitted him of the charges. The appeals preferred by the other accused were dismissed. Aggrieved by the confirmation of their conviction and sentence six accused have preferred the present appeals.

4. The prosecution case in brief is stated thus : PW4 Smt. Rekha is the daughter-in-law of deceased Bani Singh. PW5 Smt. Sudha is the married daughter of the deceased. Accused Naresh and Naseeb are sons of accused Dharambir. Accused Satish @ Shakti and accused Satbir are real brothers. On 26.5.2001 at about 1.30 a.m. PW4 Smt. Rekha and her husband Rishikesh were sleeping in the upstairs room of their house. Her father-in-law Bani Singh, her mother-in-law Smt. Phulla and her sister-in-law PW5 Smt. Sudha were sleeping in the ground floor of the house. At that time accused persons Dharambir carrying gandasa, Naresh armed with country made pistol, Satbir, Satish @ Shakti and Dhillu all armed with gandasa, Balwan carrying jelly, Ram Mehar armed with gandasa and Dhaula armed with darant, all entered their house after scaling the boundary wall. The appellants/accused went upstairs and brought PW4 Smt. Rekha and her husband Rishikesh to the ground floor and exhorted that they should be killed to take revenge for the murder of Yudhvir. Thereafter, Satish @ Shakti inflicted a gandasa blow on the neck of Bani Singh, Satbir caused gandasa blow at the very same place on the neck of Bani Singh, as a result of which, Bani Singh fell down and Dharambir inflicted gandasa blow on his right wrist and Dhillu gave gandasa blow which hit him in between his little and ring finger of the right hand. Dhaula inflicted a darant blow on the right leg of Rishikesh. Ram Mehar gave two gandasa blows on the left side of PW4 Smt. Rekha’s back and one gandasa blow on the head of PW5 Smt. Sudha. Naresh fired shots from the pistol which he was carrying. Balwan gave a jelly blow causing an injury on the right hand of Smt. Phulla. Hearing the cries raised by the injured persons, Umed Singh and Ram Kumar rushed to the spot and the appellants/accused ran away with their weapons