R. K. CHOWDHRY, J. :-

Two men, Manno Kumar and Himmat Singh, were shot at, the former fatally and the latter to receive grievous injury, at noon on September 10, 1955, at the junction of the road from Rangsaz Mohalla and the one running between the Rajwan Bazar and the Saddar Bazar Police Station in the city of Meerut. One Jai Prakash, also shortly described as Jai, is said to have fired the shots from arevolver.

On a charge of the offences having been committed in furtherance of an intention shared by him with the principal offender, the appellant Satyavir, aged 24 years, resident of Mohalla Durga Bari within, the said police station, has been convicted by the learned Sessions Judge of Meerut under S.302 and S.325, read with S.34, I. P. C, and sentenced to death under the first count and to rigorous imprisonment for 3 years under the second. Satyavir has appealed from that judgment and order, and the proceedings are also before us under S. 374, Cr. P. Code, for confirmation of the sentence of death.

2. The prosecution case was as follows. The deceased Manno Kumar, whose probable age according to the post mortem report was 18 years, and Bir Singh P. W. 1 were students of the S. S. D. College, Meerut. Bir Singh had failed in the 1955 examination and had decided to appear as a private candidate in the ensuing year. He belonged to the neighbouring town of Durala and had come to Meerut on 10-09-1955 to obtain a form of application for permission to appear in the examination as a private candidate. At 11.30 or 11.45 a.m. he met Mannoo at the Begam Bridge in Meerut.

On being asked by Mannoo where he was bound for, Bir Singh told him that he was going to Amar Vaishnav Hotel to take his food. Mannoo promised to come to the hotel after purchasing something. About half an hour later, as Bir Singh was about to finish his meals, Mannoo arrived at the hotel in a state of fright and informed Bir Singh that he had had a quarrel with Satyavir, Jai and Matroo, that some people had intervened, hut that those three had threatened that they would not let him escape that day. Mannoo asked Bir Singh to accompany him to the Saddar Bazar Police Station. The two, accordingly, engaged a rickshaw and proceeded towards the Saddar Bazar. Himmat Singh P. W. 4 was the rickshaw driver. They picked up Kastoori Lal P. W. 8 en route near the Nishat Cinema.

3. When the rickshaw reached the junction of the aforesaid roads in the Saddar Bazar opposite the shop known as the Nehru Store belonging to Basant Lal P. W. 2, the aforesaid three persons Jai Prakash, Matroo and the appellant Satyavir came frorm the front. Jai was armed with arevolver, Matroo with ahockey stick and the appellant Satyavir with aknife. Matroo and Satyavir stopped the rickshaw by catching hold of its handle and, as the occupants of the rickshaw were getting down, they asked Jai to shoot.

Thereupon Jair fired several times, the first shot hitting Mannoo on the left side of his chest and one of the subsequent ones hitting the dorsum of Himmat Singh the rickshaw-pullers left foot. Mannoo staggered and fell on the plank of awatch-makers shop. The three assailants then ran away threatening to shoot any one who came near them.

4. The prosecution and the defence are at one as regards the locus in quo, as will appear presently. And since this spot is at the junction of two roads in the heart of the Saddar Bazar, it is surrounded by a large number of shops. It is further common ground that the incident took place at noon, so that it was but natural that it should have been witnessed by the shop-keepers. Twenty two shops, out of which fourteen were at the time open, have been shown in the site plan, and of the six eye-witnesses produced by the prosecution five are neighbouring shop-keepers.

The sixth witness is the injured rickshaw-puller, Himmat Singh P. W. 4. One of these shopkeepers was Basant Lal P. W. 2, exactly opposite whose shop, called the Nehru Stor, the shooting took place. By means of the