The judgment emphasizes the significance of eyewitness testimony, the admissibility of evidence related to the recovery of the alleged weapon, and the nature of the injuries in establishing guilt in a murder case.

JUDGMENT

Anish Dayal, J. - The appellant assails the order and the judgment dated 20th April, 2019 by the learned Trial Court convicting the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and order on sentence dated 24th April, 2019 awarding sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life to the appellant and a fine of Rs.2,000/- (simple imprisonment for two months in default of payment of fine). By the same impugned judgment, co-accused Sumit @Akki @Akshay was also convicted for the commission of offence punishable under Section 326/34 IPC and sentenced to a period of six years for that offence. At the time of the hearing of the appeal, it transpired that Sumit @Akki @Akshay had been released from prison on 16th October, 2019 having served his full sentence. As per the prosecution two others were also involved in FIR No.477/2013 dated 30th October, 2013 viz. 'S' and 'K', but when investigation commenced both were found to be juveniles and hence their inquiries were conducted before the Juvenile Justice Board.

The Incident:

2. As per the case of the prosecution, Sunny Kumar Gupta (PW-3) stated that he along with Shahnawaz Ali and Ashwani on the intervening night of 29th-30thOctober, 2013, around 12:00 a.m., went to K Block, Sangam Vihar where they got involved in gambling with some boys. One of those boys aged 20-25 years insisted that Shahnawaz should gamble, who refused and a scuffle ensued between Shahnawaz and that boy who summoned some other boys standing at some distance. The appellant was one of them and had a knife and while two boys caught hold of Shahnawaz, the appellant inflicted knife injuries on Shahnawaz. Seeing this, Sunny and Ashwani got frightened and ran away. When they came back after 15-20 minutes, they saw blood oozing out from the chest and stomach of Shahnawaz. In the meantime, some persons had already called the PCR and they shifted the injured Shahnawaz to AIIMS Trauma Centre where he died during treatment. Pursuant to this, rukka was endorsed and an FIR No. 477/2013 was registered under Section 307 IPC. The crime team was called, who conducted the investigation at the spot and when Shahnawaz died, Section 302 IPC was added. Pursuant to the completion of the investigation, chargesheet was filed. Charges were framed against the two accused Panchi and Sumit @Akki and they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. The prosecution examined 30 witnesses, the statements of the accused were recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. and no witnesses were examined in defence.

Submissions by the Appellant:

3. In support of the appeal, the counsel for the appellant submitted that there was no independent witness to the recovery therefore the recovery could not be connected to the appellant. It was further contended that the prosecution was unable to produce eye witness Ashwani and another important eye witness PW-8, Harish Gupta did not support the case of the prosecution. It was further contended that the testimony of PW-3, Sunny Gupta was full of inconsistency and contradiction. The circumstances of the arrest and consequent recovery of the knife from Sumit @Akki was not credible and it was quite probable that the death of the deceased was due to cardiac arrest as evident from the testimony of PW-9.

Submissions by the Prosecution:

4. The learned Additional Public Prosecutor countering the case of the appellant contended that the rukka, the FIR, statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. and deposition of eye witness PW-3, Sunny were consistent. The post mortem report categorically stated that injuries were serious including the internal ones which were numerous and grave. The subsequent opinion of the doctor was clear that injuries could have been caused by the weapon recovered. Running away of PW-3 could not dent his evidence since PW-3 had clearly stated that they ran away due to fear but came back later to discover that Shahnawaz had been grievously injured. As regards the testimony of PW-9, the doctor who conducted the medic