Conviction for murder and attempt to murder upheld based on credible eyewitness accounts, despite minor discrepancies, while acquitting one appellant due to insufficient evidence of participation.

1. The judgment passed in this appeal shall also govern the disposal of connected Criminal Appeal No.130/2001 (Gudda alias Satyanarayan v. State of Madhya Pradesh) since the connected appeal has arisen from the common judgment passed by the learned trial Court. Since appellant No.1 - Ramniwas alias Ramvilas has expired and the legal heirs of the appellant - Ramniwas alias Ramvilas have come on record vide order dated 23.8.2022 the Criminal Appeal No.126/2021 so far as appellant No.1 - Ramniwas alias Ramvilash (since deceased) is concerned is confined to the rights of the legal representatives of appellant No.1 - Ramniwas alias Ramvilash.

2. Both the appeals are directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 23/02/2001 passed in Sessions Trial No.188/1997 passed by 2nd, Sessions Judge, District Morena, whereby appellants Ramniwas alias Ramvilash (since deceased) and Ramlakhan in the present appeal and appellant Gudda alias Satyanarayan in Criminal Appeal No.130/2001 had been held guilty u / S.302, S.307/34 I.P.C, S.302/34 and 307 I.P.C. and S.302/34, 307/34 I.P.C., for life imprisonment and 5 years each respectively and a fine of Rs.5,000/- and Rs.3,000/- each respectively. In default of payment of fine amount the appellants were directed to further undergo a period of 5 months and 3 months each respectively. Other accused persons namely Ramratan, Dinesh, Radhshyam and Jagdish were acquitted under the charge u/s 302/149 and 307/149 I.P.C., since the charges were not held to be proved against them. Accused Ramratan and Dinesh were acquitted of the charges u / S.29 and S.25(1)(a) / 27 of the Arms Act respectively.

3. The case of the prosecution in nutshell is that on 05/08/1996 at about 8.30 p.m. complainant Ashok was sitting at his Paan shop, situated near J.P. College. At that moment his friend Kukku Pehelwan, came to meet him from gym (akhada). When they were talking one white Maruti Van approached them from Ambaha crossroad and stopped in front of the Paan shop. The accused persons came out of the Vaan and Appellant / accused Ramniwas alias Ramvilash (since deceased) fired a gun shot, which hit Kukku on his head. Ashok tried to run away, but Appellant / accused Ramlakhan fired at him, which pierced his shoulder. A second shot was fired by Ramlakhan aiming Ashok, but he missed and Ashok after running to Uttampura fell down. At the scene of occurrence Ramratan was seen carrying a 12 bore gun, Jagdish was seen with a revolver and other accused persons were also carrying guns and they all fired at Ashok when he tried to escape. After sometime, when Ashok returned back on the spot, he saw Kukku lying dead on the spot. One Deepak Agrawal was also present on the spot and the persons nearby saw the incident.

4. As per the prosecution the incident occurred due to some previous enmity between Ashok and Ramlakhan and just to kill Ashok the gunshots were fired. Immediately a F.I.R. was registered at the behest