By the Court.—This Criminal Appeal arises from the judgement of the Sessions Judge, Allahabad, dated 16.10.19812 convicting and sentencing the appellants Mohammad Hussain alias Munnoo, Abdul Ghani, Azimullah and Zaheer to imprisonment for life under Sections 302 read with 34 I.P.C. and 3 years’ R.I. under Section 307 read with 34 I.P.C. The sentences are to run concurrently.

As one of the appellants Azimullah has died and a report to that effect has been received from the C.J.M. Allahabad, his appeal was made to abate by an order dated 22.7.2014.

2. The prosecution case as narrated in the judgement of the Trial Court was that on 30.10.1980 at about 5 p.m., when the deceased Jamil Ahmad had gone to the shop of Bal Govind for purchasing some items in village Dumgarha, then the appellants arrived there. Two of the appellants Mohd. Hussain and Abdul Ghani were armed with guns, whilst, Azimullah was armed with a country made pistol and Zahir Ahmad was armed with a knife. The accused persons attacked the deceased Jamil Ahmad with their weapons. Shiv Lal, s/o Bal Govind, who was running the shop in place of his father, was trying to escape, was given a knife blow by the accused Za