JUDGMENT

Anish Dayal, J. This common judgment shall dispose of the above captioned appeals, assailing the judgment of the learned Trial Court dated 29th October, 2018 convicting all the three appellants for offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC and in addition convicting appellant Dinesh Kumar @ Khali for offence punishable under Section 25(1B) (a) and 27(1) of the Arms Act, 1959 and order on sentence dated 20th November, 2018 awarding the following sentences:

a. Dinesh Kumar @ Khali - rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs.20,000/- (in default, SI for one year) for offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC; rigorous imprisonment for two years and a fine of Rs.2,000/- (in default, SI for two months) for offence punishable under Section 25 (1B) (a) of the Arms Act; rigorous imprisonment for three years and a fine of Rs.3,000/- (in default, SI for three months) for offence punishable under Section 27 (1) of Arms Act. All sentences to run concurrently.

b. Deepak Kumar @ Chintu - rigorous imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.15,000/- (in default, SI for nine months) for offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC.

c. Suresh @ Hanumant - rigorous imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.15,000/- (in default SI for nine months) for offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC.

The Incident

2. As per the case of the prosecution, on 16th May, 2012 at about 01:25 a.m., Duty Constable Dalbir Singh at SGM Hospital gave a message at PS Mangolpuri through telephone that one Angad Yadav has got admitted Nagender Yadav in the hospital who had received bullet injury at his house. The said information was lodged vide DD No.8A and marked to SI Sachin Mann who along with Constable Vinod Kumar visited the hospital where he collected the MLC of Nagendra Yadav. As per the MLC, the said patient was opined `unfit for statement'. No eyewitness was found at the hospital. The police officials, including Inspector Satya Prakash, went to the place of occurrence i.e. P-7/165, Mangolpuri, Delhi and called the crime team who inspected the place of occurrence. SI Sachin Mann prepared the rukka and got FIR no. 185/2012 registered under Section 307 IPC and 27 of the Arms Act. From the spot one blood-stained bed-sheet and scissors were seized and were duly sealed, rough site plan was prepared and statements of Ram Singh Yadav and Angad Yadav were recorded. On 16th May, 2012, information was received from RML Hospital regarding the death of Nagendra Yadav during treatment. Further investigation was marked to Inspector Satya Prakash who got the body of the deceased shifted to the mortuary and added offence under Section 302 IPC to the FIR.

3. The Investigating Officer (IO) Inspector Satya Prakash also recorded statements of Smt. Bindu wife of deceased, who stated that the deceased, after being shot in the middle of the night, had told that the appellants had shot him. On 17th May, 2012, the IO affected the arrest of appellant Dinesh Kumar and Deepak and recorded their disclosure statements. Later, the weapon of offence i.e. country made pistol (katta) with empty cartridge was recovered at the instance of appellant Dinesh. On 23rd August, 2012, IO effected the arrest of appellant Suresh and recorded his disclosure statement.

4. The case was committed to the Court of Sessions and charges were framed under Section 302/34 IPC against all three appellants and a separate charge under Section 25/27 of the Arms Act against appellant Dinesh, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. The prosecution examined 24 witnesses; statements of appellants were recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. Though the appellants chose to lead evidence in their defence, however, despite opportunity they did not examine any witness and accordingly, vide separate statement of their learned counsels recorded on 27th August, 2018 to the effect that the accused persons do not want to lead any evidence in defence, the same was closed.

Submissions by the Appellant

5. The appellants,