The judgment reaffirms the importance of credible witness testimonies, established motives, and medical evidence in criminal cases.

JUDGMENT :

Ramesh Sinha, J.

The present criminal appeal has been preferred by the appellant against the judgment and order dated 20.3.1985 passed by the IV Additional Sessions Judge, Ghaziabad in S.T. No.285 of 1983, under Section 302 I.P.C. by which the appellant has been convicted and sentenced for life imprisonment.

2. The prosecution case in brief is that the informant, namely, Jai Prakash submitted a written report at Police Station Bhojpur, District Ghaziabad stating therein that his uncle Rajveer was working in Modi Steel Factory, Modi Nagar with a Contractor Mohan Lal on commission basis for cutting of 'dhekchun'. His uncle had engaged the son of Chhutan, namely, Kharak Singh @ Kharka prior to two months of the incident for the work, but he was removed by the his uncle Rajveer (deceased) from the said work as the accused appellant was indulged in bungling of accounts and since then the accused Kharak Singh @ Kharka was annoyed with his uncle and bore ill-will with him. The accused was having the 'Parchis' of the work worth Rs.2000/- which he had not given to the deceased though he had asked for the same on several occasions but he avoided the same. On 2.8.1983 at about 8.30 p.m. when the complainant's uncle, namely, Rajveer (deceased) had gone to the house of Fakira in village Kilhora, Police Station Bhojpur, District Ghaziabad to request him to allow irrigation of his field from his tubewell, the informant had also followed him. At the house of the Fakira, a lantern was burning but he was not found at his house and he came to know that Fakira had gone to jungle on the tube-well. At that time at the house of Fakira, accused Kharak Singh @ Kharka and another uncle of the informant, namely, Hari Chand (PW1) were found having conversation while smoking bidi, then Rajveer, uncle of the informant (deceased) had again asked about the 'parchis' from the accused appellant, then the accused appellant Kharak Singh @ Kharka told him that he is going to his house to bring the same and went away and returned after some time having a 'Farsa' in his hand and assaulted his uncle at his temporal region and uttered that 'Aaj teri parchion ka pura hisab kiye deta hu". On this, the informant and his another uncle Hari Chand scolded the accused, tried to save the deceased and raised an alarm, but the accused Kharak Singh @ Kharka again gave 5-7 blows of 'Farsa' to the deceased who received injuries on his neck, head and face and on account of which he fell down on the cot and after being heard the hue and cry the mother and sister, namely, Panmeshri and Santi respectively and many other villagers had arrived there and seeing them the accused appellant Kharak Singh @ Kharka had fled away towards jungle having 'Farsa' in his hand. The uncle of the informant Rajveer died on the spot and thereafter the informant along with his another uncle Hari Chand (PW1) went to the police station to lodge the First Information Report and submitted a written report for necessary action.

3. On the basis of written report submitted by the informant Jai Prakash (PW2) on 2.8.1983, an FIR was registered against the accused appellant Kharak Singh @ Kharka as Case Crime No.103 of 1983, under Section 302 I.P.C. on 2.8.1983 at 22.30 p.m.

4. The investigation of the case was taken over by B.K.Singh (PW7) who proceeded with it. He recorded the statements of the informant Jai Prakash and witness Hari Chand at the police station itself and then set out for the place of occurrence in village Kolhora in the company of S.I. Santosh Kumar and Constables J.P. Singh, Shyam Lal and Rajvir. He reached the place of occurrence, due to night he could not prepare the panchayatnama etc. but went to search for the accused but the accused could not be traced out. In the morning at about 6 O'clock on 5.3.1983, the Investigating Officer prepared panchayatnama (Ext. Ka.5), conducted inquest upon the dead body and after completing other formalities he sent the dead body for post mortem examina