IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that a dying declaration naming only one accused undermines the prosecution's case against others, lacking evidence for a common object under Section 149 IPC.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present criminal appeal has been filed against the judgement and order dated 24.3.1986 passed by the 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehpur, in Session Trial No. 416 of 1983 convicting and sentencing the appellants under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC for life imprisonment, under Section 148 IPC for three years rigorous imprisonment and under Section 147 IPC for two years with rigorous imprisonment. All the sentences were directed to run concurrently.

2. When the alleged incident took place on 6.5.1983 at around 8:30am a first information report was got lodged by the son of the deceased Pramod Kumar Gupta at 9:25 am on the very same day. In the first information report, there was a specific averment that Gorelal son of Badku, Sheo Ram son of Bajrang, Shatrughan Singh son of Ganga Singh, Ompal Singh, Rajendra Singh and Narendra Singh with their guns and Shiv Singh who was empty handed had reached the shop where Gopi Krishan was running his shop. Thereafter, Gorelal had fired upon the deceased- Gopi Krishna Gupta. The firing done by Gorelal was followed by an indiscriminate firing by Sheoram, Shatrughan, Ompal Singh, Rejendra Singh and Narendra Singh.

3. Upon the lodging of the first information report, the police got into action and investigation followed. A panchayatnama was prepared stating that the incident was got reported in the police station at 9:25am on 6.5.1983 and that the panchayatnama proceeding commenced on 6.5.1983 at 10:00am and it also stated that on the very same day at 11:00am the panchayatnama proceeding got concluded. After the panchayatnama was concluded, the dead body of the deceased was sent for post mortem which was conducted on 6.5.1983 at 4:15PM. It may be mentioned that the first informant at the time of getting the F.I.R. lodged had not reported that the deceased Gopi Krishna had died. It had only stated that he was lying in an injured state at his shop. The F.I.R. was also, therefore, followed by an injury report dated 6.5.1983 and was allegedly said to have been prepared at 8:45am. Not only this, from the record it can be found that there was a dying declaration also of the deceased numbered as exhibit – kha 6 which was recorded 8:45am again on the same day i.e. on 6.5.1983 by Dr. S.N. Tripathi. This dying declaration had categorically stated upon a question being asked by the Doctor that who exactly was responsible for the firing and the injured Gopi Krishna had stated that Gorelal was the person who had fired on him and he had also stated while giving the dying declaration that with Gorelal he had no enmity. The Doctor in the dying declaration itself had mentioned that the S.D.M. of Bindki Court was called but he could not appear and the patient had expired at 9:00am. Dr. S.N. Tripathi was not produced by the prosecution but was produced by the defence as D.W. - 4.

4. A recovery memo of two empty cartridges of 12 bore which were found from the place of incident was also prepared and was exhibited as Exhibit - ka23. The police had also taken the plain soil and the soil with blood and the recovery memo of it was marked as exhibit ka-24. Upon investigation having got completed, the police submitted its report and the Court thereafter took cognizance of the case and framed charges against six persons, namely, Gorelal @ Shyam Narain Singh, Sheoram Singh, Shatrughan Singh, Rajendra Singh, Narendra Singh and Ompal Singh for charges under Sections 148, 302 read with 149 IPC. The charges were framed on 23.6.1984 and they were read over to the accused persons and when they did not plead guilty, the case was put to trial.

5. A separate charge sheet was prepared for the accused Shiv Singh on 23.6.1984 itself and the charges in it were three in number. Firstly, the charge was with regard to the death of Gopi Krishna Gupta under Section 147 IPC and under Section 302 IPC read with Section 149 IPC and the other set charge was with regard to one more deceased Ram Gopal whose dead body was rec