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Reserved on 1.4.2022

Delivered on 21.6.2022

Court No. - 32

Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 3160 of 2007

Appellant :- Ram Bahadur And Another

Respondent :- State of U.P.

Counsel for Appellant :- Umesh Chandra Mishra,Akash

Mishra,Ashok Kumar Nigam,Kuldeep Singh Yadav,Mahesh Sharma,Satya

Niwas Prasad,V.K.Sharma

Counsel for Respondent :- Govt. Advocate,K.M.Mishra

Connected alongwith

Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 3305 of 2007

Appellant :- Santosh Yadav

Respondent :- State of U.P.

Counsel for Appellant :- B.B. Dubey,Kuldeep Singh Yadav

Counsel for Respondent :- Govt. Advocate,Anurag Shukla,K.B.Dixit

Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.

Hon'ble Vikas Kunvar Srivastav,J.

(Delivered by Justice Sunita Agarwal)

1.

Heard Sri Ashok Kumar Nigam and Sri Kuldeep Singh Yadav

learned counsel for the appellants and Sri Roopak Chaubey learned AGA

for the State-respondents.

2.

These appeals have been directed against the judgment and order

dated 28.4.2007 passed by the Additional District & Sessions Judge,

Court No. 2, Etawah whereby four accused persons namely Santosh

Yadav, Ram Bahadur, Hakim Singh and Rajveer Singh have been

convicted for the offence under Sections 148, 302 readwith Section 149

IPC as also under Section 25(1-B)(a) of the Arms Act. They have been

sentenced for one year rigorous imprisonment each for the offence under

Section 148 IPC; life imprisonment with fine of Rs. 10,000/- each for the

offence under Section 302 readwith Section 149 IPC, the default

punishment for which is two years rigorous imprisonment for each

accused-appellants. For the offence under Section 25(1-B)(a) of the Arms

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Act, each accused-appellants has been sentenced for one year rigorous

imprisonment with fine of Rs. 1000/-, the default punishment for which is

six months rigorous imprisonment. All the punishments are to run

concurrently.

3.

Three connected criminal appeals namely Appeal No. 3160 of 2007

(Ram Bahadur And Another vs. State of U.P.), No. 3305 of 2007 (Santosh

Yadav vs. State of U.P.) and No. 4202 of 2007 (Hakim Singh vs. State of

U.P.) were filed by four accused persons convicted and sentenced by the

judgment and order dated 28.4.2007 passed by the trial court.

Out of four appellants herein, Hakim Singh, the appellant in the

connected Criminal Appeal No. 4202 of 2007 had died during the

pendency of the present appeals and the appeal filed on his behalf has

been abated on the death verification report submitted by the Chief

Judicial Magistrate concerned. Out of the remaining three surviving

appellants, Ram Bahadur and Rajveer are represented by Sri Ashok

Kumar Nigam learned Advocate, whereas appellant Santosh Yadav is

represented by Sri Kuldeep Singh Yadav learned Advocate.

4.

Before proceeding with the matter, we may record that the first

information report was lodged against six accused persons, out of whom

one Brijesh @ Chhutuwa had died before the commencement of the trial

and Dharmendra Singh @ Pappu remained absconded and, thus, the trial

could proceed only against four accused named in the FIR, the appellants

herein.

5.

Coming to the facts of the present case, the first information report

of the incident occurred on 6.8.2004 at about 7:00 AM was lodged at the

Police Station Jaswant Nagar, Sub-district Jaswant Nagar, District Etawah

on the same day, i.e. 6.8.2004 at about 8:15 AM. The distance of the place

of the incident named as field/Jungle of Gram-Murad Mau indicated in

the Check report is as 8 kms. North of Village Hevra. The first informant

is Mahipal Singh Yadav, brother of deceased Kripal Singh Yadav. As per

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narration in the written report given by Mahipal Singh Yadav, his

deceased brother Kripal Singh Yadav was sitting at his tube-well located

in his field at Village Murad-Mau on 6.8.2004 at about 7:00 AM. At that

time, the first informant namely Mahipal Singh was tying 'Medh' in the

field of his deceased brother. His uncle Sri Ram Avtar son of Beerbal

(