The court held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the appellants beyond a reasonable doubt.

R. N. Aggarwal, J.

( 1 ) THE appellants Latoori Lal and his son Raju along with Ram Avtar (since acquitted) were tried for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The charge against them was that on 26th February 1979 at about 9. 30. p. m. at the Kachha Rasta Sanjay Park they had in furtherance of their common intention intentionally caused the death of Kishan Lal. The first two accused were found guilty of the offence charged with and each one of them was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. The third accused, as already stated, was acquitted.

( 2 ) ON 26th February 1979 at 9. 55 p. m. Public Witness. 5 Jhangi Ram, a resident of a Jhuggi near Sanjay Park reported at the police post Jehangirpuri that he resided in a Jhuggi at Sanjay Park and that at about 9. 30 p. m. he heard noise of the people and came out of the Jhuggi and that near the Pushta he saw a young man lying dead in the kachha road. Sub-Inspector Rajinder Parshad ent the report Ex. PW. 2/a with his endorsement Ex. P. W. 18/a to the police station Adarsh Nagar for formal registration of the case. The report Ex. Public Witness 2/a was despatched to the police station at 10. 50 p. m. and the formal report was recorded at 11-10 p. m.

( 3 ) PUBLIC Witness. 18 Sub-Inspector Rajinder Parshad reached the ipot and commenced the investigation. Public Witness. 6 Maqsood Ali reached the spot at about 11 p. m. and he claimed to be a witness to the occurrence. He named the appellants and Ram Avtar as the assailants of the deceased. The motive for the crime as disclosed by Public Witness. 6 is that Latoori Lal and the deceased Kishan Lal were cousins. The wife of Latoori Lal developed illicit relations with Kishan Lal and she started living with Kishan Lal along with her son Raju (appellant ). She gave birth to a son named Pappu from Kishan Lal 5 or 6 years prior to the occurrence. Raju quarrelled with his mother and Kishan Lal and went away to live with his father Latoori Lal. A few days prior to the occurrence the wife of Latoori also left Kishan Lal and went back to her husband Latoori. Kishan Lal wanted to have the custody of Pappu but Latoori was not willing to give the custody of Pappu to Kishan Lal and on that on the day of the occurrence at about 4 p. m. and again at 6 p. m. there was quarrel between Kishan Lal and Latoori Lal. Maqsood Ali intervened and brought Kishan Lal with him to Subzi Mandi, Azadpur.

( 4 ) REGARDING the occurrence Maqsood Ali deposed that at about 9 p m. he had purchased goods from the Subzi Mandi and he asked Kishan Lal to bring a rickshaw, that Kishan Lal did not return but his other partner Phool Singh brought the rickshaw, that on his enquiry he was told that Kishan Lal had gone for some work, that he went in search of Kishan Lal and at about 9 or 9. 15 p. m. he reached the kachha rasta near the Bandh, that he saw all the accused having an altercation with Kishan Lal, that Latoori grappled with K!shan Lal and felled him on the ground and Raju stabbed Kishan Lal twice with a knife, that Kishan Lal cried "bachao BACHAO" and he went near Kishan Lal, that he ran after the accused but could not catch them, that he went to the house of the accused but did not find them in the house, that he returned at abut 11 p m. to the spot and met the police party. The witness further deposed that he knew all the accused persons and the deceased as they worked with him in the Subzi Mandi.

( 5 ) ALL the accused were arrested on 9th March, 1979 Latoori was wearing the shirt Ex. P. 5 and Tehmad Ex. P-4 and Shri Raj Bahadur Singh Tyagi (P. W. 19) took into possession the clothes worn by Latoori. He also took into possession the Pajama Ex. P-6 worn by Raju. On chemical examination the Tehmad and the Pajama were found to be stained with human blood. The blood on the Tehmad was found to be of b group which was also the blood group of the deceased. A knife was recovered on information given by Raju accused. The said knife wa

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