Hon’ble Bharat Bhushan, J.—Appellants have assailed the judgment and order dated 23.4.1983 passed in Sessions Trial No. 156 of 1982 (State v. Rakesh Singh and others) arising out of Crime No. 533 of 1981 under Section 302 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code (in short I.P.C.) Police Station (P.S.) Tilhar, District Shahjahanpur whereby all four appellants, namely, Rakesh Singh, Karan Singh, Satypal Singh and Udhan Singh have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the then Special Judge, Shahjahanpur.

2. Appellant No. 4 Udhan Singh has died, therefore, his appeal stands abated vide order dated 3.3.2016 passed by co-ordinate Bench of this Court. This Court is now concerned only with the appeals of appellant Rakesh Singh, Karan Singh and Satypal Singh.

3. Prosecution story in brief is that on 30.12.1981 deceased Narbir Singh was busy in digging his boring to the west of village Mahiyyapur. Deceased had invited his nephew Saran Pal Singh (P.W.1) from nearby village Behta Pathak, P.S. Kanth, District Shahjahanpur for help. On the date of occurrence i.e. on 30.12.1981. Saran Pal Singh (P.W.1) came to village Mahiyyapur for this purpose. Deceased Narbir Singh, his fourteen years old son Virendra Singh (P.W. 3) and Jai Chand, (cousin) were involved in digging on this day. Janki Devi (P.W. 2) widow of deceased Narbir Singh and her son-in-law Mahendra Singh came to the place of boring with their noon meals. All of them took meals together. P.W. 2 Janki Devi and her son-in-law Mahendra Singh also stayed back.

4. All the above persons of complainant side were returning back after finishing digging work in the evening. Deceased Narbir Singh was carrying his lathi, Phawda (spade), basket (Tokri), rope and Tawa etc. and was moving 10-12 paces ahead of remaining persons. Rest of the persons including informant Saranpal Singh (P.W. 1) were following him. Suddenly at about 5 pm. accused persons, namely, Rakesh Singh, Karan Singh, Satypal Singh and late Udhan Singh emerged from the wheat and Arhar field of Ompal. Appellant No. 1 Rakesh Singh and appellant No. 2 Karan Singh were holding guns while appellant No. 3 Satypal Singh and late Udhan Singh were wielding lathies. Appellant No. 4 Udhan Singh shouted and instigated others to assassinate Narbir Singh. Appellant No. 3 Satypal Singh claimed that accused persons in the murder case of one Dhanpal Singh got acquitted because of refusal of deceased Narbir Singh to testify. Therefore, Narbir Singh should also be sent to join late Dhanpal Singh whereupon both appellants Rakesh Singh and Karan Singh discharged one shot each upon the deceased Narbir Singh from their guns. Narbir Singh fell down and died instantaneously. Accused appellants also extended threat to other persons saying that none of them should go to police station otherwise they will be finished as well. Thereafter the accused persons went away towards village while dead body of deceased Narbir Singh remained on the spot. This incident reportedly occurred on 30.12.1981 at about 5 pm. Prosecution case is that the informant and other persons remained rooted to the place of occurrence throughout the night because of fear of accused persons and that the informant left for police station Tilhar early in the morning which was located almost four miles away from the place of occurrence. The report was lodged on 31.12.1981 at about 6:45 am. The case was entered into General Diary (G.D.) at P.S. Tilhar.

5. On the basis of oral F.I.R. a chik report Ext. Ka-1 was prepared at P.S. Tilhar under Section 302 I.P.C. on 31.12.1981. Investigation was entrusted to P.W. 6 R.B. Singh who was in-charge of police chauki Madnapur P.S. Tilhar. He received papers at about 8 am. regarding this case from S.H.O. P.S. Tilhar. He reached the place of occurrence somewhere around 10:30 am. where he recorded the statement of informant Saran Pal Singh P.W. 1, prepared site plan, took samples of blood stained and plain earth, recovered Tikli, empty