Acquittal upheld as prosecution failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt; witness testimonies deemed unreliable and contradictory.

JUDGMENT :

AJAY KUMAR-II, J.

1. Heard Mr. Sanjay Kumar Yadav, the learned counsel for appellant and the learned A.G.A. for State-opposite party-1.

2. Challenge in this Criminal Appeal is to the judgment dated 30.08.2025 passed by Sessions Judge, Azamgarh, in Sessions Trial No. 28 of 2012 ( State vs. Ram Karan Yadav and others ), Sessions Trial No. 491 of 2014 ( State vs. Jai Prakash @ Prakash Yadav and others ) arising out of Case Crime No. 376 of 2011, under Sections 302/149, 147 IPC, Police Station Raunapar, District Azamgarh and Session Trial No. 29 of 2012 ( State vs. Vijai Yadav ), arising out of Case Crime No. 515 of 2011, under Section 3/25 Arms Act, Police Station-Raunapar, District Azamgarh, whereby the accused opposite parties 2 to 9 have been acquitted by Court below of the charges framed against them.

3. Brief facts of the case are that the first informant-appellant moved a Written Report dated 02.08.2011 by stating that her husband had gone to Chandpatti to sell milk in the morning. On 02.08.2011, at around 12:00 noon, Subhash, Ramkaran, Rambadan and Heera were sitting in ambush 1 km west from Vishen Ka Pura Chowk with a four wheeler and one motor cycle. There was a land dispute with Subhash. They had also threatened her husband. Her husband's vehicle was pushed and he was made to fall. He got up and ran away. By then, aforesaid persons chased and caught her husband and broke his legs and hands by running the car over him, due to which, he died on the spot. She was taken by her son Jaikesh on a bicycle and after getting medicines when they reached the spot, they identified all the aforesaid persons. Meanwhile, one Niranjan Yadav also came on the spot. All the three persons have seen the incident.

4. On the aforementioned Written Report (Tehrir) of appellant, FIR against the named accused persons as Case Crime No. 376 of 2011, under section 302/34 IPC at 4:00 pm on 02.08.2011 at Police Station Raunapar, District Azamgarh was registered.

5. After completion of investigation, charge-sheet was submitted against opposite parties 2 to 9 under Sections 302/34, 147 IPC. Another charge-sheet was also submitted against opposite party 5 Vijai Yadav, under Section 3/25 Arms Act. Thereafter cognizance was taken upon same and the cases were committed to the Court of Sessions. After hearing both the parties, the charges were framed against opposite parties 2 to 9, under Sections 302/149, 147 IPC and charge under Section 3/25 Arms Act was also separately framed against opposite party 5 Vijai Yadav.

6. In order to prove it's case, prosecution adduced eight prosecution witnesses, namely, P.W.-1 Smt. Mewati Yadav (the informant/wife of deceased), P.W.-2 Jaikesh (son of the deceased), P.W.-3 Dr. Santosh Kumar (Autopsy Surgeon), P.W.-4 Parmarath Yadav (witness of panchnama), P.W.-5 Ramkrishna Dwivedi (Ist Investigating Officer), P.W.-6 Rampreet Yadav (witness of prosecution sanction), P.W.-7 Harigovind Singh (Scribe of FIR) and P.W.-8 Tejbahadur Singh (the then In-charge Inspector and 2nd Investigating Officer). The witnesses adduced by the prosecution have given their respective oral evidence and also proved 27 prosecution papers, namely, Written Report (Tehrir) as Ex. Ka-1, Post Mortem Report as Ex. Ka-2, Inquest Report (Panchayatnama) as Ex. Ka-3, Police Form-13 as Ex. Ka-4, Letter to C.M.O. as Ex. Ka-5, Photonash as Ex. Ka-6, letter to Inspector as Ex. Ka-7, Site Plan as Ex. Ka-8, Recovery memo of blood stained earth and plain earth as Ex. Ka-9, Recovery memo of b