Point of Law: Section 134 of the Indian Evidence Act provides that no particular number of witnesses shall in any case be required for the proof of any fact and, therefore, it is permissible for a court to record and sustain a conviction on the evidence of a solitary eyewitness.

JUDGMENT :

1. By these Appeals under Section 374 (2) of the CrPC, the appellants herein would call in question the legality, validity and correctness of the impugned judgment dated 20.12.2012 passed by the 3rd ASJ, Durg in ST No.197/2011 whereby the appellants have been convicted and sentenced as under :-

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that injured Jaiyo Sona (PW-2) lodged an FIR on 9.6.2011 at 8.15 pm at Police Station Supela, District Durg, vide Ex.-P/2 stating that 3 days prior to the date of incident, a quarrel took place between the deceased Gopi and co-accused Pintu, a juvenile in conflict with law and on the date of incident i.e. 9.6.2011 at 7.45 pm when he and deceased Gopi, after finishing the work of glass house, were returning to their home, near Supela house, Nehru Bhawan Road, Pintu and 2 other friends, whose names he was not aware, stopped them on the way and started quarrelling by abusing in filthy language in the name of mother and sister and also threatened them to kill. When deceased Gopi objected for the same, Pintu, who was hiding a knife in his waist, took out the same and started assaulting Gopi in his back for 5-6 times. When he tried to save him, Pintu also assaulted in his back 3-4 times. Friend of Pintu caught hands of deceased Gopi. Deceased Gopi immediately fell down and blood started oozing out from his back. When he shouted, the accused persons ran away. Deceased Gopi became unconscious and nearby people took him to the District Hospital, Durg. The deceased was primarily examined by Dr. Smt. B.N. Wahne (PW-5) at Government Hospital, Supela vide Ex.-P/19, from where he was referred to Sector-9 Hospital, Bhilai. The deceased died during treatment on 9.6.2011 at 10.30 hours. Merg intimation (Ex.-P/33) was given by K.K. Dixit (PW-16). Injured Jaiyo Sona (PW-2) was also medically examined vide Ex.-P/26 by Dr. B.P. Tiwari (PW-9). The postmortem was conducted on the dead body of the deceased vide Ex.-P/38 by Dr. A.K. Mishra (PW-17), who opined that the cause of death is due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of ante-mortem stab injury. In the FSL report (Ex.-P-/31), knife seized from appellant Amit Singh and Juvenile Shambhu contained blood stains.

3. During investigation, statements of witnesses were recorded. Clothes of the deceased and the injured were seized which contained blood stains. Identification proceeding of the accused persons was conducted vide Ex.-P/23 wherein the injured identified the accused persons and at his instance, the accused persons and 5 juveniles in conflict with law namely, Pintu, Navin Agrawal, Shambhu Prasad, Rahul Gautam and Vikky @ Saurabh Das were arrested. On the basis of memorandum statements (Ex.-P/5 to Ex.-P/9), blood stained two knives were recovered from appellant Amit Singh and Shambhu Prasad (juvenile) and the wearing apparels of the accused persons containing blood stains were seized. Blood stained soil and plain soil were seized from the place of occurrence in presence of witnesses. The weapon of offence i.e. knife was sent for examination to ascertain whether death and injuries could be caused by the said weapon. Spot map was prepared. Clothes of the accused persons, deceased and the injured, as also the weapon of offence i.e. knife were sent for chemical examination to the FSL, Raipur.

4. After completing investigation, charge sheet was filed and the case was committed to the Sessions Court for trial in respect of the present appellants. However, trial in respect of accused persons namely, Pintu, Navin Agrawal, Sh