IMPORTANT POINT
The court emphasized the necessity of consistent and reliable eyewitness testimony, finding significant discrepancies that undermined the prosecution's case.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present criminal appeals have been preferred against the judgement and order dated 25.9.2000 passed by learned IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Banda, convicting and sentencing the appellants to undergo life imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 10,000/-under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 of IPC and in case of default of the payment, they were directed to undergo further six months of Rigorous Imprisonment and further they were sentenced to undergo one year of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 2,000/-under Section 25 of the Arms Act and in case of default of payment, they were directed to undergo further two months of rigorous imprisonment.

2. The alleged incident, as reported by the First Information Report dated 09.07.1993, had occurred on 08.07.1993 at 11.00 PM, while the deceased Ajit Narayan @ Badshah Pathak along with his wife Urmila and his son Pankaj Kumar Pathak was going back after seeing a cinema show. In the First Information Report, it was stated that the deceased, along with his wife, after having seen the cinema show from 6.00 to 9.00 PM and after having distributed the tickets for the last cinema show, had started homewards on his bicycle. It was stated that he also worked in the cinema hall and sold tickets there. In the First Information Report, it had been stated that while the first informant and the deceased were on their feet, the son Pankaj was made to sit on the bicycle, and when they reached near the railway overbridge, which was near a private bus-stand, then from the side of the bus-stand, the elder brother of the deceased known by the name of Malka and one more person whom the first informant had not known, came towards them. The two, i.e., the elder brother of the husband of the first informant and the unknown person, surrounded the husband of the first informant near the building of Bajrang Vidyalaya. It was stated in the FIR that the informant heard the elder brother of the deceased sarcastically uttering that he would now see that the property is partitioned. Thereafter, the elder brother of the deceased and the unknown person dragged the husband of the first informant towards the parked buses and also gave him a beating. When this was happening, the first informant raised a hue and cry. The husband, when was being beaten, implored that his brother may not beat him and that all the land which was of the deceased may be taken by him. Because of the hue and cry raised by the first informant and the deceased, Har Prasad, Ansar Khan and Vijendra reached the spot. However at around 11.00 PM in the night, the elder brother of the first informant shot at the husband of the first informant with his country-made pistol. Upon being fired, the husband of the first informant was grievously injured. It has been stated in the First Information Report that at that point of time a policeman came on the spot and the first informant, along with the policeman and her husband, reached the government hospital on a Rickshaw. She pleaded in the First Information Report that on her information action be taken by the police and the guilty be brought to book. This First Information Report was scribed on the dictation of the first informant by one Sri Girish Dutt Dwivedi, the husband of the sister of the deceased. After the First Information Report was lodged, the police had got into action, and the First Information Report, which was lodged under Section 307 of the IPC, was converted under Section 302 of the IPC as the husband of the first informant died during the course of treatment. The case crime number of the criminal case came to be given as Case Crime No. 862 of 1993. When the two accused were arrested an arrest memo was prepared on 10.07.1993. Also while they were arrested, a country-made pistol of 315 bore and bullets of 315 bore were also recovered. The recovery memo and the arrest memo were compositely prepared on July 10, 1993. The first informant had also handed over a note to