The testimony of chance witnesses must be scrutinized rigorously, and without credible corroborating evidence, convictions cannot be sustained.

JUDGMENT :

1. The above criminal appeals have been heard together as appellants Afaq and Rais @ Munna who were tried together filed criminal appeals separately against the same judgement.

2. Upon an incident having taken place on 20 June, 1984 at around 7:30 a.m., wherein one Shabbir Ahmad Khan had died, his brother Saleem Khan got lodged a first information report at 8:30 a.m. As per the first information report, the brother of the first informant while was, on 20 June, 1984, at 7:30 a.m. after having answered the call of nature, going back to his home, Afaq s/o Jamaluddin Khan and Rais @ Munna s/o Shakir Khan near the Gosai Talab accosted the deceased. Afaq was carrying a razor (ustara) while Rais was empty handed as was stated in the first information report and when Rais and Afaq met Shabbir, they entered into a verbal altercation and thereafter there was a physical fight as well. Thereafter, Rais exhorted Afaq to kill the deceased and subsequently Afaq with the help of Rais had assaulted Shabbir with the razor with an intention to kill.

3. It has been stated in the first information report that the incident was witnessed by Yakoob Khan, Nasiruddin Khan, Ali Ahmad @ Gajju Khan, Usman Khan and Abdul Hafeez. When these persons who were present at the spot asked the two assailants not to kill Shabbir then the miscreants ran towards the southern direction and ran away. The motive has also been disclosed in the first information report and it has been stated that around nine months prior to the incident, one Kuresha was married to the brother of the first informant i.e. the deceased Shabbir. However, when Kuresha had doubted that Shabbir was having an affair with the wife of Saleem then Shabbir had got angry with this false allegation, which was alleged against him and he had divorced Kuresha. In the first information report itself, it had been stated that around one month prior to the incident, there was a Panchayat in the village and the parties had come to a settlement. It had been stated that because of this enmity, the accused-Afaq and Rais had cut the throat of the deceased with an intention to kill him. In the first information report itself there was a prayer that the investigation be done and the guilty be brought to book.

4. On 21.6.1984, it was stated that as per the information the blood-stained razor (Ex.ka5) was discovered and was taken into custody at the instance of Rais. The clothes etc. of the deceased was also taken into custody. The plain soil and the blood-stained soil were also taken into custody and were exhibited as Ex.ka11. Thereafter, upon lodging of the FIR, Panchayatnama was th prepared on 20 June, 1984 itself. It commenced at 9:00 a.m. and came to an end at 10:30 a.m. This was followed by a th postmortem, which was done on 20 June, 1984, itself at 5:40 p.m.

5. From the side of prosecution, as many as 7 prosecution witnesses were produced. P.W.-1, Dr.Ramji Khare, had proved the postmortem and had given the details of the ante-mortem injuries, which were found on the dead-body of the deceased. P.W.-2, Ram Adhar, Head Constable, had written the chick-FIR and he had also proved the same. P.W.-3, Saleem Khan is the real brother of the deceased and he was the person who lodged the first information report. The P.W.-3 in his examination-in-chief had stated that since Kuresha was divorced by the deceased Shabbir around a month prior to the incident, there was enmity between him and the accused. It was stated that Rais was the brother of Kuresha and Afaq was a relative of Rais. He has th categorically stated that the incident had taken place on 20 June, 1984 near the Gosai Talab and that he had himself gone to the Gosai Talab to pick some mud from there. He has stated that Shabbir had returned from the Talab and had reached the place of incident after having eased himself in the morning. He has stated in his examination-in-chief that when Shabbir had reached the place of incident, then he heard the accused saying