Guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt; eyewitness testimony, even from related witnesses, can sustain conviction when corroborated by credible evidence.

1. The appellant has preferred present criminal appeal under S.374 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'Cr.P.C.') against the impugned judgment dated 31/05/2017 passed by Sessions Judge, District Ratlam (M.P.) in Sessions Trial No.220/2011, whereby the appellant has been convicted for the offence under S.302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short ' IPC ') and has been sentenced to undergo Life Imprisonment.

2. The facts of the case in brief are that on 19/05/2011 at about 04:00 PM the deceased Faiyaz Hussain went to meet his relative Sadique and Wasim at Rain Basera Market of Ratlam. He was conversing with his brother Riyaz Hussain, who was present there for purchasing submersible pump. At that time, accused / appellant Sunil Rathore came there and suddenly put the pistol on the left side of deceased's chest and continuously fired two to three times with an intention to kill him. Resultantly, deceased died on the spot. The incident was witnessed by Riyaz, Wasim and Sadique. They took the deceased Faiyaz to Civil Hospital, Ratlam in Ishwar's Tempo, but treating Doctor declared him brought dead. In the meanwhile, accused fled away from the spot with the help of co - accused Mahendra on his motorcycle. During the investigation, it has been gathered that the agricultural land of the deceased Faiyaz is situated at Village Palsoda and accused Sunil's agricultural land is adjacent to it. Their lands were separated by a public well. Accused Sunil wanted to occupy the well all alone, which was opposed by the deceased. Upon this, appellant Sunil threatened him by saying that he will see him and due to the aforesaid enmity deceased was shot dead by the accused.

3. The prosecution story is further that Dr. Yogesh Nikhra (PW - 10) has conducted the postmortem of the deceased along with Dr. Pushpendra Sharma and Dr. Nirmal Jain. As per their autopsy report deceased died due to gun shot injury to vital organ those are Heart, Diaphragm, Liver and Retroperitoneal area. Mode of death is hemorrhagic shock. Blood stained clothes of the deceased along with other seized articles have been sent to the FSL for their chemical analysis. Complainant Riyaz Hussain launched a Dehati Nalishi at Police Station - Station Road, Ratlam. On the basis of the Dehati Nalishi FIR has been registered against the accused Sunil and Mahendra. Investigation Officer S. D. Mule prepared a spot map (Exhibit - P / 4) and recovered a miss fired cartridge, blood stained and simple soil from the spot through Seizure Memo (Exhibit - P / 18). During the investigation, on the basis of memorandum statement given by the appellant Sunil a fire arm (country made pistol) has been recovered from his possession for which he was not having any valid licence. The motorcycle used in the incident has also been seized from the possession of the co - accused Mahendra.

4. After completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ratlam, who has committed the case to the Court of Sessions. Thereafter, trial Court on the basis of the allegations made in the charge sheet framed charge under S.302 of IPC against the present appellant and charges under S.302 and S.120 - B of and S.25 and S.27 of the Arms Act against the co - accused Mahendra. Appellant and co - accused abjured their guilt and pleaded complete in