The prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt with reliable and corroborated evidence.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Shri Gopal Chaturvedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Anurag Shukla, learned counsel for the appellants, Shri Shoeb Khan, learned AGA for the State and Shri Sanjay Mani Tripathi, learned counsel for the son of the deceased.

2. This criminal appeal has been filed by the accused-appellants praying to set aside the judgment and order dated 05.10.1985 in Sessions Trial No. 262 of 1982 (State vs. Satya Narain Yadava and Others) under Sections 148, 302/149 and 201 I.P.C. and P.S. Gola, District-Gorakhpur arising out of Case Crime No. 194 of 1980 under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302 and 201 I.P.C. and P.S. Gola, District-Gorakhpur. By the impugned judgment, all the accused-appellants have been convicted with life imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. two years R.I. for the offence punishable under Section 148 I.P.C. and three years R.I. for the offence punishable under Section 201 I.P.C. All the sentences were to run concurrently.

3. The appeal of the appellant no. 1-Satya Narain Yadava, appellant no. 4-Jagat Narain and appellant no. 7-Phool Chand was abated vide order of this Court dated 05.12.2018 and the appeal of the appellant no. 2-Dhanush Dhari was abated vide order of this Court dated 17.07.2019. Now, this appeal survives only in respect of the appellant nos. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, namely, Chakradhari, Ram Singh, Vijai Shanker, Ram Karan, Pabbar and Nav Ratan respectively.

Facts:

4. Briefly stated facts of the present case are that an F.I.R. No. 171 being Case Crime No. 194/1980 under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302 and 201 I.P.C. and P.S. Gola, District- Gorakhpur was lodged by one Ghisiyawan alleging that when he alongwith the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla and one Markandey Chaubey son of Kamta Prasad Chaubey were returning from Gopalpur, near the house of the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla at about 10 P.M. in the night, when they reached at the house of Jokhai, he saw in the light of his torch three accused persons, namely, Satya Narain Yadava armed with Farsa, his son Chakradhari @ Laldhari armed with a gun and Jagat Narain son of Tapai Yadav armed with Katta and on exhortation of Satya Narain Yadava, Chakradhari @ Laldhari and Jagat Narain fired at the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla due to which he fell on the ground on receiving the gun shot injury. Thereafter, Dhanush Dhari, Phoolchanda, Navratan and Ram Singh armed with Ballam and Vijay Shankar, Ram Karan and Pabbar and two other persons armed with Farsa came and started beating the aforesaid Sant Prasad Shukla. On hearing the cry and sound of fire, the wife of deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla and his daughter Vimla Kumari came on the spot having torch in their hands, whose house was near to the place of incident. Despite persuasion by the wife and daughter of the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla, the accused persons mercilessly caused injuries to the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla resulting in his death. Thereafter, the accused persons dragged the body of the deceased to the south side of the village towards Saryu river, which was about four furlong from the place of incident but due to fear, she (wife of the deceased) could not chase them. It was apprehended that either the accused persons would have hidden the dead body somewhere or would have thrown it in the river Saryu.

5. The aforesaid F.I.R. was registered in the night of 28/29.09.1980 at 00:30 hours. The Investigating Officer reached on the spot and prepared the recovery memo, recovering one torch from the eye witness Markandey Chaubey, one torch from the informant-Ghisiyawan and one torch from the eye witness Vimla Kumari (daughter of the deceased-Sant Prasad Shukla). The aforesaid recovery memo is of 29.09.1980 (Exhibit Ka-6), which bears the signature of five witnesses, namely, Ghisiyawan, Komal, Ram Charan, Vimla Kumari and Markandey Chaubey. Another recovery memo dated 29.09.1980 was prepared by the Investigating Officer in presence of the witnesses, namely, Kom