The main legal point established is the importance of relation witnesses, the principle that defect in investigation is not a ground for acquittal, and the need for independent scrutiny of evidence.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, J.

By filing this bunch of appeals, the appellants take exception to their conviction under Sections 147, 148, 302, 307/149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under Section 25(1b)(a) with respect to appellant Muntaz @ Lala. They have been sentenced to undergo a rigorous imprisonment for the offences under Sections 307/149 and under Section 25 (1)(b) (a) for various length of period. Highest conviction that has been awarded to each of the appellants is under section 302 read with 149 of the IPC and they have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay Rs.5,000/-, each, in default, a general default sentence has been awarded for undergoing imprisonment for six months.

2. Sans unnecessary details, the case of the prosecution is that on 15.04.2006 at about 10:00 PM Gulfam, the deceased was returning from the house of his maternal uncle Abdul Malik. When he was at Mohalla Sainipura, Haridwar, in front of the Mosque, the appellants were concealing themselves and on seeing Gulfam they open fire at the deceased. As a result of which he sustained severe injuries and died at the spot. The occurrence was witnessed by the informant, who happens to be his brother, and thereafter he lodged a report before the Manglaur police station, in the District of Haridwar. As a result of such FIR, Crime Case No. 133 of 2006 was registered by the S.H.O and the investigation of the case was taken up. In course of investigation the Investigating Officer examined the complainant; recorded his statement; he also recorded the statements of other eye witnesses, held inquest on the dead body of the deceased; and for the post mortem examination, made seizure and injuries apparent on the dead body of the deceased, as well as, the blood stains are inspected on the spot. He sent these materials for chemical and serological examinations to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL), Dehradun. He in course of the investigation arrested the persons and on the pointing of Sahzad, one weapon of offence, being a country made pistol, was recovered, which is also been produced before the learned trial judge.

3. Upon completion of investigation the Investigating Officer has submitted charge sheet against the appellant. In order to prove its case the prosecution has examined, in total, ten witnesses. PW1 Ahsan S/o Surfin Ahmadin the informant of the case - he is also an eyewitness of the occurrence. PW7 Matloob S/o Mohd. Umar, the resident of Mohalla Sainipur, Manglaur is also an eyewitness, but he is not related to the deceased or the informant in any way. PW2 Arshida @ Neha w/o the deceased Gulfam, PW3 Rafik S/o Abdul Karim, father of the deceased and PW8 Nazneen D/o the deceased, a child witness aged about 13 years at the time of the examination are the eyewitnesses of the occurrence. PW4 Dr. Akhilesh Aggarwal has conducted the post-mortem examination of the dead body of the deceased. Rest of the witnesses are formal or official witnesses. PW10 Shri Jaswant Singh, is the Investigating Officer.

4. The defense in this case took the plea of simple denial and false accusation in their statements recorded under Section 313 of the Code. However, the appellant Sahzad has also taken the plea of alibi and has examined DW1 Imran to prove that he was not present in Sainipur Mohalla and has gone to Jaipur, Rajasthan for observing Jamaat.

5. The learned trial Judge taking into consideration the evidences of four eye witnesses and the medical evidence and also the attending circumstances came to the conclusion that the prosecution has proved its case beyond all reasonable doubts and, therefore, proceeded to convict them as stated above.

6. In course of hearing, learned counsels for the appellants, Mr. B.D. Pande and Mrs. Neetu Singh would submit that the prosecution case should be viewed with suspicion on the ground that though it is the very case of the prosecution that all the six persons fired at the deceased as a result of which he susta