Judgment

Sanjay Dhar, J.-The present appeal is directed against the judgment dated 17.02.2016, whereby appellant has been convicted of offence under Section 302 and 307 RPC together with order of sentence dated 20.02.2016, whereby the appellant has been sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5000/ for commission of offence under Section 302 RPC and rigorous imprisonment of ten years for commission of offence under Section 307 RPC.

2. The brief facts leading to the filing of the instant appeal are that on 31.10.2009, a written information was received by SHO, P/S Kokernagh from PW-1, Shri S. K. Basu, Deputy Commandant of 164 Bn. CRPF, wherein it was stated that on 30.10.2009 at around 9.15 PM, the appellant/accused, a Head Constable, serving in Unit No.164 of CRPF, had fired several rounds with his service rifle AKM bearing Butt No.S/71 body No.NK447619 in Jawans Barracks which resulted in death of two persons, namely, Head Constable Tufail Ahmad Khan and Head Constable Sadashiv Tiwari as also injuries to two more persons, namely, Head Constable Biren Malakar and Constable Hemango Burman. FIR No.115/2009 for offences under Section 302 and 307 RPC was registered and investigation of the case was set into motion.

3. During investigation of the case, the dead bodies of two deceased CRPF personnel were taken into custody for conducting their postmortem and the injured were sent to hospital for their medical treatment. The statements of witnesses conversant with the facts of the case were recorded under Section 161 Cr. P. C and statements of certain other witnesses were recorded under Section 164-A Cr. P. C before the concerned Magistrate. The weapon of offence, fired empty cartridges and magazines of the weapon were seized, where-after the weapon of offence as well as magazine and fired empty cartridges were sent to FSL, Srinagar, for examination and report by Ballistic expert. The report of the Ballistic expert was also obtained.

4. After conducting investigation of the case, it came to fore that on the day of occurrence, during day time, some altercation between appellant/accused Ramesh Chand and deceased Tufail Ahmad Khan over some unknown matter had taken place and because of this, at about 9.30 PM, the appellant/accused opened indiscriminate firing with his service weapon in Jawans Barracks, as a result of which, two CRPF personnel, namely, Tufail Ahmad Khan and Sadashiv Tiwari lost their lives and two more CRPF personnel, namely Hemango Burman and Biren Malakar sustained serious bullet injuries. Accordingly, offences under Section 302 and 307 RPC were found established against the appellant/accused and charge sheet was laid before the Court.

5. After the case was committed to the learned trial court, charges for offences under Section 302 and 307 RPC were framed against the appellant/accused in terms of order dated 27.03.2010. The appellant/accused denied the charges and claimed to be tried. Accordingly the prosecution was directed to lead evidence in support of its case. Out of 21 witnesses cited in the charge sheet, all except PWs 4 and 9 were examined by the prosecution. The evidence of the prosecution was closed in terms of order dated 25.05.2015, where-after the incriminating circumstances appearing in the prosecution evidence were put to the appellant/accused and his statement under Section 342 of J&K Cr. P. C was recorded. The appellant/accused did not enter his defence.

6. The learned trial court after hearing the parties and after taking into consideration the evidence led in the case, came to the conclusion that the charges against the appellant/accused stand established and, accordingly, the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence came to be passed.

7. The appellant/accused has challenged the impugned judgment, primarily, on the following grounds:

(I) That the learned trial court has not appreciated the evidence led by the prosecution in proper perspective;

(II) That there is no evidence on r