1. The appellants-accused Chandra Bhan and Janeshwar assails the conviction for commission of offence under Section 302/34 IPC by the judgment and order dated 21.01.1988 passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Saharanpur, whereby they have been convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and also under Section 324/34 IPC, imposed a sentence for six months' R.I. Both sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

2. During the pendency of the appeal, one of the appellants-accused Chandra Bhan has died and this Court has abated his appeal.

3. In short, the prosecution case is that PW-1 Darshan Lal made a complaint at Police Station, Mandi at 10:15 PM that on 12.03.1986, there was marriage ceremony of Prem's daughter, a neighbour, in his locality. The dinner of barat was arranged at his open roof, while the guests were having the dinner, the appellant no.2 Janeshwar with bad motives caught hold of Kalawati, wife of his younger brother Devi Das. She raised an alarm, upon which, Subhash and Devi Das rescued her from Janeshwar and a scuffle broke out between them.

4. They intended to lodge an FIR against his misbehaviour with the wife of Devi Das but people of the locality and father of Janeshwar intervened and the settled the matter. Hence, no FIR was lodged regarding the said incident but the appellant no.2 Janeshwar threatened them with dire consequences within 15 days.

5. On 17.03.1988 at about 8:30 PM, Janeshwar and his brother-in-law Chandra Bhan came at their house and started abusing Subhash. On hearing the noise, the informant and Devi Das went out of the house. They saw that Chandra Bhan caught hold of Subhash and had exhorted Janeshwar to kill Subhash. Janeshwar inflicted injury upon Subhash by way of a knife on his neck. Devi Das tried to snatch knife from Janeshwar to save Subhash and sustained injuries.

6. In the meantime, Subhash managed to escape and reached at the back of his house through the lane and tried to enter therein. However, he was chased by Janeshwar and Chandra Bhan, Janeshwar told the Chandra Bhan that Subhash has escaped unhurt, hence he had exhorted Chandra Bhan to shoot at Subhash. At his exhortation, Chandra Bhan opened fire from his country made pistol but Subhash did not receive any firearm injury as he had already fallen down on the ground due to his previous injury on his neck, which was bleeding.

7. It is further stated that on being chased by them and the witnesses, both the accused persons ran towards Kamela. The said incident is said to have been witnessed by a number of persons.

8. It is further stated that Subhash was taken to the hospital but he succumbed to his injuries.

9. On the basis of said report, the FIR was registered vide Case Crime No. 86 of 1986 under Sections 302/324 IPC at Police Station Mandi, District Saharanpur.

10. On the basis of the said FIR, the chick report was prepared and the case was registered in the general diary vide G.D. Report No. 42 at 22:15 Hours. Investigation was entrusted to SO Mahendra Pratap Singh.

11. In the intervening night of 17/18th March, 1986, the injuries of victim Darshan Lal were also examined at the hospital, which were found to be simple in nature. The Investigating Officer Mahendra Pratap Singh started the investigation and recorded the statements of Darshan Lal, Kalawati, Mange Ram, Devi Das and other witnesses and prepared the site plan and the recovery memos.

12. On the next day i.e. 18th March, 1986, the panchayatnama was prepared, which has been signed by the independent witnesses and thereafter, the body was sent for postmortem. The postmortem was conducted on the person of the deceased by Dr. Pradeep Singhal, who found following injury:-

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13. In the opinion of Doctor, the cause of death was hemorrhage and shock. The postmortem report of Subhash has been marked as Ex. Ka-14. A separate injury report of Su