Hon’ble Anjani Kumar Mishra, J.—These two connected criminal appeals are directed against the impugned judgment and order dated 15.10.2004 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge (F.T.C. Second), Hathras in S.T. No. 62 of 2003.

2. Narendra @ Nannu, appellant in Crl. Appeal No. 5584 of 2004, has been convicted under Section 307 IPC and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, alongwith a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, and to serve a further 3 months’ imprisonment in default of payment of fine. He has also been convicted under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment, alongwith a fine of Rs. 10,000/- and to undergo 6 months’ further imprisonment in case of default in payment of fine.

3. Sant Kumar @ Nannu and Achchi @ Gajendra, appellants in Crl. Appeal No. 5412 of 2004, have been convicted under Sections 307/34 IPC and sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment, with a fine of Rs. 4,000/- and to serve a further 2 months’ imprisonment in case of default in payment of fine.

4. The FIR of the present incident was lodged on 7.5.2001, at about 7.45 a.m., at police outpost Bisawar, Police Station Sadabad, District Hathras under Section 307/504 IPC regarding an incident said to have taken place at 7.15 a.m. in village Garh Tisanga, situated at a distance of about 3 km from the police outpost. Later, on the death of Komal Prasad, the case was converted into one under Section 302 IPC.

5. The allegations as per the first information report (FIR) are that Jai Prakash, accompanied by Dhanna and Bunty, while returning from the house of Prem Singh Kachi, was stopped by the appellant Narendra in front of his house. Jai Prakash was questioned as to why he was not closing down his shop, which was causing pecuniary loss to Narendra. On Jai Prakash refusing to shut down his shop, appellants Sant Kumar and Achchi are alleged to have caught hold of Jai Prakash by his waist (‘jeth bhar li’) and appellant Narendra brought his licensed gun from his house and shot at Jai Prakash, who, thereafter, freed himself and ran back in the direction he had come from. On receiving this information, Komal Prasad, father of Jai Prakash, the first informant, Chandra Shekhar @ Guddu and one Mathura Prasad rushed towards the site of the shooting. When they reached near the house of one Vishnu Dutt Rai, Narendra (the appellant), who was standing on his roof-top, fired at Komal Prasad, who was hit and he fell down. On hue and cry being raised, the three accused ran away firing shots in the air. The first informant thereafter took his father and lodged the FIR at the aforementioned police outpost. It was also stated that Jai Prakash had been taken by other family members to Agra for treatment.

6. The prosecution examined as many as 11 witnesses, to prove the charges against the appellants. Of these, Jai Prakash @ Oopo, PW-2, is the injured, while PW-3 Brijesh Kumar @ Bunty, is the maternal cousin of Jaipraksh. These two are said to be the eye-witnesses to the incident. PW-1, Chandra Shekhar @ Guddu, the first informant, is an eye-witness of the second shooting only.

7. Apart from the above three witnesses of fact, the remaining witnesses namely PW-4 to PW-11 are formal witnesses. PW-4, Kehri Singh is the constable moharrir who had recorded and registered the FIR. PW-5, Dr. V.S. Agnihotri, had conducted postmortem examination on the cadaver of the deceased, Komal Prasad. PW-8, Harishchandra Singh is the first investigating officer, who had prepared the site-plan, recovered the gun said to have been used in the incident and who collected the blood-stained earth from the site of the incident. PW-9, Surjan Singh, is the second investigating officer, who took over the investigation on 20.5.2001 and who had recorded the statements of Dhanna, Shiv Charan Badhai and Brijesh Kumar @ Bunty on 21.5.2001 under Section 161 Cr.P.C. and the statements of Sanjay Kumar and Mathura Prasad on 26.5.2001. On his transfer, the investigation was taken over by PW-6, Vidya Raman Sharma on 5.6.2001.