By the Court.—Heard Sri Vindesh Kumar Mishra, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri Sagir Ahmad, learned AGA for the State.

2. The appeal questions the correctness of the conviction and the sentence awarded by the learned Additional District and Session Judge, Shahjahanpur in Session Trial No. 293 of 2005 arising out of Case Crime No. 343 of 2004 whereby the appellant has been convicted for the offence of murder under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and has also been found guilty of having committed offence under Section 25 of the Indian Arms Act in Session Trial No. 292 of 2005 in case crime No. 345 of 2004, for which he has been awarded life imprisonment and two years of rigorous imprisonment respectively coupled with Rs. 10,000/- as fine and in default thereof to undergo further six months simple imprisonment.

3. The First Information Report discloses that the appellant is alleged to have fired a shot from a country made pistol at about 08:30 pm on 15th July, 2004 thereby causing the death of one Dharamveer Singh on the spot. The First Information Report is stated to have been lodged on the same day at about 22:45 pm by Agar Pal Singh, the first informant and PW-1 father of the deceased Dharmveer Singh. The scribe of the FIR is one Nanhe Singh son of Room Singh. The FIR is exhibit Ka-1 and it narrates that while the deceased Dharamveer Singh was standing near the shop of one Chotelal Kisan alongwith his younger brother Udaiveer Singh and one Sher Bahadur S/o Netrapal Singh, the appellant Devendra Singh was also present with a country made pistol in his hand. The deceased is stated to have purchased a sachet of Harsingar (gutka) upon which the appellant assailant is also stated to have offered him a sachet that was refused by the deceased. It is on such alleged trivial issue some oral exchanges took place and later on it took the shape of a scuffle whereupon the appellant aimed his country made pistol on the temple of the head of the deceased and fired a shot resulting in his death.

4. The FIR discloses that the informant Agar Pal Singh PW-1 on hearing of the shot being fired rushed towards the scene of occurrence alongwith his brother Rati Pal Singh and while they were coming towards the scene of occurrence, which was at the very short distance, they saw the appellant fleeing away waving his country made pistol. The informant and his brother did not make any attempt to catch hold of the assailant-appellant as he was armed with a country made pistol. The incident caused a big furore in the village and those who were present scattered and locked themselves inside their house. Leaving behind the body of the deceased, the informant has recited and that he arrived at the police station for getting his report registered. The inquest is said to have been prepared and the post-mortem was carried out the next day.

5. The investigation was concluded where after the appellant was charge-sheeted under Section 302 IPC for murder with a separate charge-sheet under Section 25 of the Arms Act. The prosecution produced Agar Pal Singh the father of the deceased as PW-1, Rati Pal Singh, the brother of Agar Pal Singh as PW-2 as witnesses of fact. The other witnesses are formal witnesses Karan Singh being the Investigating Officer who was examined as PW-3, Doctor Nepal Singh, who had carried out the autopsy was examined as PW-4 Mahesh Pal Sharma, the Investigating Officer of the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act was examined as PW-5, Mohammad Kayyum Ansari, the constable of police station Tilhar who had registered the FIR was examined as PW-6 and Raghu Nandan Singh who carried out the raid to arrest the appellant and then made the recovery of the fire-arm alleged to have been used in the commission of the offence was examined as PW-7.

6. The statement of the accused under Section 313 IPC was recorded whereafter, the trial Court on an assessment of the evidence proceeded to convict the appellant of the said offences and awarded