The two appeals and the reference for confirmation of death sentences of the appellants arise out of a common judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, Court No.7, dated 10.01.2015 in Sessions Trial No.399 of 2014, 407 of 2014, 408 of 2014 and 409 of 2014. Session Trial No.399 of 2014 relates to Case Crime No.25 of 2014 in which all the four appellants were tried for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 I.P.C. The other three sessions trials relate to the recovery of weapons of assault for which a separate case crime numbers were registered, namely, Case Crime No.26 of 2014, State Vs. Momin Khan, under Section 25/4 of Arms Act. Case Crime No.27 of 2014 under the same sections was registered against the Jaikam. The third Case Crime No.28 of 2014 under the same sections was registered against Sajid. All these case crimes relate to Police Station Narora, district Bulandshshar.

2. Since the death sentence was awarded by the trial court to all the accused appellants the same has been sent for confirmation vide Reference Letter dated 14.01.2016 that has been registered as Reference No.1 of 2016 in the High Court. All the four accused namely, Momin, his wife Smt. Nazra, Jaikam and his son Sajid filed Jail Appeals on 16.01.2016 in the High Court that has been registered as Criminal Appeal No.844 of 2016. Subsequently two of the accused, namely, Jaikam and Sajid filed another Criminal Appeal No.602 of 2016 on 05.02.2016 which was admitted by a Division Bench on 10.02.2016 and the lower court records were summoned. It appears that when the matters were listed again, Criminal Appeal No.844 of 2016 which was filed by all the four accused from jail was also admitted on 28.03.2016. Thus there are two orders admitting both the appeals, one dated 10.02.2016 and the other dated 28.03.2016.

3. A gruesome murder took place at about 8.30p.m. in the early night hours of 23.01.2014 in which six lives were lost namely that of Mausam Khan (aged about 85 years), his wife Asgari (aged about 80 years), his son Shaukeen Khan (aged about 55 years) along with his wife Shanno, (aged about 30 years) and their son Samad (aged about 8 years), and Muskan (aged about 15 years) the niece of Shaukeen Khan.

4. The first information report was lodged at about 10.00 p.m. on the same day at Police Station Narora District Bulandshahar by Ali Sher Khan, the third son of deceased Mausam Khan.

5. The first information report nominates Momin, the fourth son of deceased Mausam Khan, and brother of the informant, along with his wife Smt. Nazra and two others Jaikam Khan and his son Sajid as the perpetrators of the crime with knives in their hands as the weapon of assault. A dispute about running the family business of a brick klin is alleged to be the motive behind the same. The informant Ali Sher Khan and his brother-in-law Jan Mohammad were nominated as eye-witnesses of the said crime clearly stating that they were present and that they seen the offence being committed by all the four accused simultaneously. To understand the relationship of the deceased with the accused, it would be appropriate to reproduce the genealogical table which remains undisputed between the parties :-

Criminal Appeal No. 844 of 2016 Smt. Nazra and others vs State (from jail) Reference No. - 01 of 2016 Judgement/order dated 10.1.2015 Additional Sessions Judge, Court No.(7)

Sentence - Death punishment to all u/s -302/34 IPC Maumeen Khan, Jaikam Khan and Sajid convicted u/s 25/4 Arms Act with 3 years imprisonment and fine of Rs.5000 each.

Shakoor Khan

Zafar Khan

Mausam Khan (deceased) -wife- Asgari (deceased)

Nasuru Khan Naniya (son) (daughter)

Jaikam Khan (son) (accused-3)

Idreesh (son)

Yamneen (son)

Mehran (daughter)

Ame