Dr. S. Muralidhar, J.:

1. These appeals are directed against the judgment dated 27th April 2015 of the learned Additional Sessions Judge-01 (New Delhi District), Patiala House Courts in Sessions Case No. 127 of 2013 arising out of FIR No. 17 of 2013 registered at Police Station (‘PS’) Sagarpur convicting the Appellants, Kunwar Neeraj (A-1) and Satyapal Singh (A-4), for the offences Section 302 Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’) read with Section 120B IPC and under Section 120B IPC read with Section 302 IPC and respectively. A-1 was also convicted for the offence under Section 25/27 Arms Act.

2. The appeals are also directed against the order of sentence dated 30th May 2015 whereby, for the offence under Section 302/120B IPC, A-1 was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with a fine of Rs.20,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment (‘SI’) for a period of one year. For the offence under Section 25/27 Arms Act, A-1 was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a period of five years with a fine of Rs.5,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, to undergo SI for five months. Both sentences of punishment were directed to run concurrently.

3. By the same order on sentence, A-4 was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with a fine of Rs.20,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, to undergo SI for one year for the offences under Section 302/120B IPC.

4. It must be noted at the outset that along with A-1 and A-4, four other accused, namely Dinesh Kumar @ Master (A-2), Ankit Sharma (A-3), Amit Gupta @ Monu Telli (A-5) and Punit @ Lambu (A-6) were sent up for trial. However, the benefit of doubt was extended to these four accused and they were acquitted of all charges framed against them.

Charge

5. The charge against all accused was that on or before 16th January 2013 at Delhi and Meerut, all the accused, A-1 to A-6, along with Yogesh @ Rinku [declared proclaimed offender (‘PO’)] entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit the murder of Ashok Kumar (deceased) as he, being a member of Scheduled Caste (‘SC’), dared to marry Seema (PW-1) who belonged to the Thakur caste which had annoyed A-4, her father and thereby all of them committed offences punishable under Section 120B IPC.

6. The second charge against A-1 to A-6 was that pursuant to the aforementioned criminal conspiracy, A-1 to A-3, A-5, A-6 and the PO at the railway line near CVD Delhi Cantonment, East Sagarpur Delhi, committed the murder of the deceased by causing bullet injuries thereby committing the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 120B IPC. Additionally A-1 was charged with being found in possession of a desi katta containing a live cartridge and two other live cartridges at about 6 p.m. on 19th January 2013 near Harijan Chowk, Nasirpur without any valid licence thereby committing an offence punishable under Sections 25/27 of the Arms Act.

Case of the prosecution

7. The case of the prosecution is that Seema (PW-1), the daughter of A-4, was pursuing her B.Ed. course from Meerut University. There she met the deceased who was also studying in the same place and they developed a liking for each other. During one of the vacations, the deceased had gone to his parental home in Kanpur and informed his mother, Gudia (PW-10), that he had developed a friendship with PW-1. Sometime prior to completing of the B.Ed. course, both PW-1 and the deceased had visited the house of the deceased in Kanpur and met PW-10 and disclosed that they love each other and intended to get married. When PW-10 expressed her desire to talk to the parents of PW-1, PW-1 stated that her parents would not talk on account of the difference in caste.

8. According to the prosecution, sometime prior to the deceased marrying PW-1, Satyapal (A-4) threatened Harish Chand (PW-9), the father of the deceased, that he should take care of his son and ensure that the deceased was not seen in Meerut or its vicinity. On 7th May 2010, the deceased and PW-1 got married at the Ar