The judgment underscores the requirement for reliable and conclusive evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt in criminal cases.

ORDER :

1. By the judgment impugned dated 21st March, 1983 in Sessions Trial No. 185 of 1982, learned Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Allahabad convicted the accused-appellant for an offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code and awarded sentence to undergo imprisonment for life term. Aggrieved by the same, this appeal is before us.

2. The case of the prosecution as unfolded in the judgment impugned is that on 22nd December, 1980, a criminal case was registered at Police Station Colonelganj, District Allahabad at the instance of Sri Devendera Nautiyal (PW1) son of the deceased. The contents of the first information report submitted by Sri Devendra Nautiyal are as follows:-

"This is humbly requested that my father was posted as Chief Personnel (P.T.) in B.P.C.L. Naini who use to travel to factory (P.T.) from house no. 420 Mumfordganj. Shri Ram Chandra Saroj, who was Casual Labour of B.P.C.L., came to my house on 21.12.1980 at 9 am and said my father "Sir, my family is starving now. Please get me reinstated in my job revoking my termination". On this, my father said "Look! I cannot do anything now". On this, Ramchandra Saroj left saying "Fine, now if you cannot do anything, I will". Today at 6.30 o'clock, I my brother Brijendra Nautiyal had come to meet me. Shri Arvind Hatwal and Mukesh were talking to each other facing the road sitting in verandah in front of main entrance. Street light and light of verandah were on. Then only, just as my father lifted latch of the gate coming there, Ramchandra Saroj and another person, whom I do not know but I can identify on face to face, came there and Ramchandra Saroj exhorted "Nautiyal Saab, you didn't do my work, today I will kill you" and he shot fire at my father's neck and back. Having seen my father fallen on ground, when we and many others of mohalla rushed to catch Ramchandra Saroj and his men, companion of Ramchandra Saroj threw two bombs on us in front of Kamal Bhandar. Taking advantage of its smoke and the fear of the sound of the bomb, both of them fled. On being asked by Shri Surendra Kumar Srivastava r/o house no. 339 Mumfordganj, my father told to Surendra Kumar Srivastava along with Shri Surya Kumar Sarvaiya r/o 338 Mumfordganj and Dr. S.N. Gupta and Shri R.P.S. Seth that Ramchandra Saroj attacked him on not revoking his termination. After this, Shri Surendra Kumar Srivastava took my father to hospital in car. 20 days earlier also, Shri Ramchandra Saroj had come to father with a request to revoke his termination. Here, I inform you. Please take proper action on it."

..(Authorized translation)

3. On basis of the facts informed, the investigating agency initiated investigation against accused Ram Chandra Saroj for commission of an offence under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code. During course of the investigation, the corpus of deceased Naresh Chandra Nautiyal was subjected to an autopsy. The autopsy was conducted by Dr. B.B. Sahai (PW4). As per the prosecution, on having disclosure from the accused, a pistol was recovered and that was sent for its examination to the ballistic expert. The empty cartridges lying at the spot of occurrence too were recovered and the same were also forwarded for their examination to the ballistic expert. Suffice to state while making recovery of the pistol, certain live cartridges too were found and those were also sent to the ballistic expert.

4. After completing the investigation, a police report was filed before the court competent and the case being triable by sessions court was committed to it. Learned Sessions Judge, Allahabad transferred the matter to learned Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Allahabad to proceed further. On 31st August, 1982, learned Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Allahabad framed a charge against the accused-appellant for commission of an offence under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code and on pleading not guilty the trial commenced, as desired.

5. The prosecution supported its case with the aid of 11 witnesses out of wh