The delay in lodging the FIR and flaws in the investigation did not undermine the credibility of the witnesses' identification of the accused and the quality of the evidence, leading to the court's decision to uphold the conviction and sentence of the appellants.

Per: Virender Singh, J.

1. Barkat Ali S/o Bali Mohd., aged 30 years; Mohd. Sadiq S/o Jammu, aged 35 years; Mohd. Iqbal S/o Bali Mohd., aged 30 years; Mehandia S/o Haji lal, aged 40 years; and Sain S/o Haji lal, aged 80 years, all residents of village Morha Dandli, Tehsil Mahore, District Udhampur; after having been convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 302/436/307/120-B RFC vide impugned judgment of learned Sessions Judge, Udhampur dated 18.10.2006, are before us through Cr. Appeal No. 18/2006. It needs to be mentioned here that in the memo of appeal, appellant-Sain has been shown to be resident of a different village i.e. Budhan Harri Wala, Tehsil Mahore, District Udhampur.

2. All the aforesaid appeUants have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- each under Sections 302/120-B RPC, in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each; seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000/- each under Sections 436/120-B RPC, in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each; and seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000/- each under Section 307/120-B RPC, in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each. However, all the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently. Sentence imposed upon them has been sent to this Court for confirmation by the trial Court under Section 374 Cr.P.C. Hence Criminal Reference No. 03/2006.

3. It would not be out of place to mention that other persons namely Hussain S/o Haji Lala, Gulabu S/o Wall, both residents of Dandli, Ghulam Ali S/o Haji Lala (declared as terrorist), Hussain & Muneer both sons of Ghulam Ali, residents of Hariwala, Danish S/o unknown and Abrar S/o unknown (declared as terrorists) were also shown to be involved in the occurrence alongwith other thirty/thirty five assailants (whereabout not known), but as the aforesaid persons could not be nabbed by the police, proceedings against them were initiated under Section 512-Cr.P.C. This is how the aforesaid five appellants only have faced the trial.

4. Prosecution case in brief:

In the present occurrence, eight persons have lost their lives, whereas five were injured. The deceased are Santosh Devi alias Chin to Devi, Soba Ram, Ganpati Devi, Shankar Dass, Parshotam lal, lal Dai, Shrishta Devi and Sushma Devi, whereas injured are Mst. Lacho, Chain Singh, Krishan Singh, Mst. Naseebo and Mst. Gabban. The place of occurrence is village Dansal Morha Dandli falling within the jurisdiction of Police Post Arnas. Date of occurrence is of 7th April, 2002 and the time is about 8 P.M.

5. On 08.04.2002, in the morning hours, an information was received in Police Post Arnas from a reliable source to the effect that on the night intervening 7th/8th of April, 2002 certain militants had entered village Dansal Morha Dandli, armed with ammunition and started indiscriminate firing. Some of the members of Village Defence Committee retaliated the firing. Militants had killed certain persons and caused grievous injuries to some of the residents of the village. They had also set on fire some houses in the village. The said information was entered in the Daily Diary Register (DDR) of Police Post Arnas. The police immediately swung into action through PW Sabdar Hussain. The injured persons were immediately airlifted to Govt. Medical College & Hospital Jammu for their treatment, where one of them namely Mst. Sushma Devi succumbed to the injuries on 10.04.2002. Aforesaid Sabdar Hussain prepared the inquest reports of all the dead bodies lying on the spot, recorded the statements of the witnesses present there and completed all other required investigation on the spot itself. The photo-graphs were also clicked show­ing the place where the different dead bodies were lying.

6. During the investigation, from the statement of the witnesses, it revealed that the aforesaid appellants had entered into criminal conspira

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