The court affirmed the conviction of the appellants under sections 147, 148, 149/307, and 149/302 IPC, establishing that they formed an unlawful assembly with a common object to cause harm, leading to serious injuries and deaths.

JUDGMENT :

Anish Kumar Gupta, J.

1. Heard Sri Ashok Kumar Tripathi and Sri Shashank Singh, learned counsel for the appellants, Sri Shubham Kumar holding brief of Sri Ashish Goyal, learned counsel for the informant and the learned A.G.A. for the State.

2. All these appeals have been filed by the appellants being aggrieved by the judgement and order dated 11.08.2016 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Court No. 5, Shahjahanpur in Sessions Trial No. 548 of 1997 & Sessions Trial No. 222 of 1998, whereby all the appellants herein have been convicted for the offences under Sections 147, 148, 149/307 and 149/302 I.P.C. For the offence under Section 147 I.P.C. they were sentenced for two years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, for the offence under Section 148 I.P.C., three years imprisonment with fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, for the offence under Sections 149/307 I.P.C., all the appellants were sentenced for life imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 25,000/- each and for the offence under Sections 149/302 I.P.C. all the appellants were sentenced for life imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 30,000/- each. In case of non payment of fine for the offence under Sections 147 and 148 I.P.C., they were directed to undergo six months’ additional imprisonment in addition to the sentence already awarded.

3. The brief facts of the prosecution case are that the informant- Narendra Pal Singh s/o Fakire Singh, had submitted a written report on 18.05.1997 at around 1:00 A.M. at P.S.- Nigohi, District- Shahjahanpur, stating therein that on 17.05.1997 at around 6:30 P.M., the accused Jangbahadur Singh, Rajkumar Singh, Devendra Singh who were equipped with guns, accused Jaipal Singh who was armed with a single barrel gun, Anil Kumar Singh who was armed with a double barrel gun, Vijay Kumar Singh who was armed with a countrymade pistol, Omprakash Singh, Nanku Singh, Rajkumar Singh, Rakesh Singh, Rajendra @ Gajendra Singh, Dangal Singh who were all armed with single barrel gun and Veer Singh was again having a gun, were drinking liquor and abusing each other while passing through the informant’s chaupal. When the informant and his family members objected to their behaviour, the aforesaid persons opened fire because of which Fakire Singh, Smt. Hira Kunwari Devi, Jhinak Singh, Nepal Singh, Rajkumar Singh, Prem Pal Singh sustained fire arm injuries. The informant- Nagendra Pal Singh had stated in the written report that he brought the injured persons in a tractor trolley to the police station and requested for lodging the report and taking appropriate legal action.

4. On the aforesaid written report submitted by the informant- Nagendra Pal Singh s/o deceased- Fakire Singh, an F.I.R. was registered under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 504 I.P.C. and also under Section 27 of the Arms Act against the accused appellants, namely Devendra Singh s/o Jangbahadur Singh, Omprakash Singh s/o Jagdish Singh, Rajendra @ Gajendra Singh s/o Kanhai Singh, Rakesh Singh s/o Rameshwar Singh, Rajkumar s/o Nanku Singh, Rajkumar s/o Jangbahadur Singh, Anil Kumar Singh s/o Jaipal Singh, Vijay Kumar Singh s/o Jagdish Singh, Nanku Singh s/o Mangoo Singh, Kanhai Singh s/o Pulander Singh, Dangal Singh s/o Visni Singh, Jaipal, Veer Singh and Jangbahadur s/o Zoravar Singh. On the basis of the letter of reference of the police station, medical examination of the injured persons was conducted at Government Hospital, Nigohi, District- Shahjahanpur.

5. As per the medical examination report dated 19.05.1997 at 10:30 A.M. the following injuries were