JUDGMENT

M.K. Mukherjee, J. - This appeal under Section 14 of the Theorist Affected Areas (special Courts) Act, 1984 is directed against the judgment and order dated February 28, 1985 rendered by the Special Court, Ferozpur convicting the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life.

2. Shorn of details, the case of the prosecution is as under:

On April 18, 1984 the betrothal ceremony of Jagatar Singh brother of Pritam Singh (the deceased) was to take place in village Takhtupura. Amongst others, the appellant was an invite thereto. After the ceremony was over in the evening food and drinks were served to the guests. At or about 11 P.M. Pritam Singh requested the appellant to leave as he, by then, had his food and drink. The appellant took serious exception to such solicitation of Pritam Singh and retorted that the guests should not be treated in that manner. To avoid any further untoward incident Pritam Singh, Jagtar Singh, Lahora Singh and others took the appellant aside to escort him to his place of work in the village. After they had proceeded a little distance, the appellant again took Pritam Singh to task for insulting and humiliating him. He then brought out a pistol form the fold of his loin cloth, fired at Pritam Singh hitting him on the abdomen and ran away. Pritam Singh, while being taken to the hospital, succumbed to his injuries. In the meantime Jagtar Singh went to Nihalsinghwala Police Station and lodged an information about the incident. On that information a case was registered and ASI Prithi Singh (PW 7) took up the investigation. He went to the place of occurrence, collected blood stained earth form the spot and sent the same to the Chemical Examiner for examination. After completion of investigation he submitted charge sheet against the appellant and in due coursed the case was committed to the Court of Session.

3. The appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge levelled against him and asserted that he did not participate in the betrothal ceremony. According to him, he was falsely implicated by Jagtar Singh owing to enmity.

4. To prove its case the prosecution relied primarily upon the ocular version of the incident as given out by Jagtar Singh (P.W. 3) and Lahora Singh (P.W. 5). Both of them stated that the appellant had participated in the betrothal and thereafter consumed food and liouor. They next stated that at or about 11 P.M., Pritam Singh asked the appellant to leave the place and that the appellant felt insulted thereby. They then stated about the subsequent conduct of the appellant which culminated in his firing at Pritam Singh with a pistol. In their cross examination an attempt was made on behalf of the appellant to prove that there was no light at the scene of occurrence so as to enable them to identify the miscreant but such attempt failed. On the contrary, through the site plan prepared by the investigating Officer and exhibited during the trial (Ex.P.3) the prosecution established that there was an electric post there. This apart, considering the seouence of events and the fact that the parties were known to each other from before, there could not be any scope for mistaken identity. Having carefully gone through the evidence of PW 3 and PW 5 we do not find any reason whatsoever to disbelieve them, particularly when nothing could be elicited in cross examination to discredit them. Then again, the evidence of PW 3 finds ample corroboration form the FIR which was promptly lodged within three hours of the incident and contains the substratum of the prosecution case.

5. The next corroboration of their evidence is furnished by Dr. B.K. Goel (PW 1), who conducted antopsy on the body of the deceased. His uncontroverted testimony shows that the deceased had the following injuries on his person:

"1. A lacerated punctured wound 1 cm x 1 cm with inverted margins on the frontal surface of the abdomen midway between costrophrenic angle and umbili