statement was recorded by the police. Bhagwan Singh alleged that alleged that they are three brothers. Gurbachan, deceased was the eldest and he is next to him and Hardeep Singh is the youngest. The complainant alleged that all the three brothers are living in their separate Dhanies situated in their fields, adjacent to each other and in the same rectangle.

3. With the above background, the complainant alleged that on 20.6.1997 he was present in his Dhani. Gurvinder Singh son of Hardeep Singh, who is brother of the complainant, had gone to take a bath in the canal, which is nearby their Dhani but an altercation took place between Gurvinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh at about 05.30 p.m. at the canal but Gurvinder Singh returned back in the Dhani. As per the complainant, after that a little later accused Gurmeet armed with double barrel .12 bore gun, accompanied by Gurpreet Singh, Joginder Singh, Baljeet Kaur w/o Gurmeet Singh and Baljeet Kaur w/o Gurpreet Singh, who were armed with lathis, came near the Dhani of Hardeep Singh and started abusing them. One of the accused Gurmeet Singh raised lalkara that let them be killed, on this, the brother of the complainant, Hardeep Singh came out of his house and Tejender Pal Singh and Pushpinder Singh sons of Hardeep Singh also came out of their house and on seeing them, Gurmeet Singh fired two shots from his gun, one of which hit Hardeep Singh in his abdomen and other on the left thigh and he fell down and the other pallet hit the right arm of Tajender Pal Singh. As per the complainant, he intervene to save his family, on which accused Gurmeet Singh assaulted him with a lathi and gave a blow on his right thigh. Accused Baljeet Kaur caused lathi blow on his right paw. Accused Joginder Singh also gave a lathi blow on the head of Pushpinder Singh and Baljeet Kaur gave a lathi blow on the back of Pushpinder Singh. On this, when they raised alarm, which attracted some persons towards the spot. All the accused persons fled away, in their own house alongwith their arms.

4. In this way, the complainant Bhagwan Singh alleged that all the accused persons have assaulted them with a motive to take revenge of the decision of the Civil Litigation in favour of the complainant party. To explain the same, the complainant alleged that he and his brother Hardeep Singh were fighting Civil litigation with Gurmeet Singh for the partition of their joint land and a decree was passed in their favour and accused Gurmeet felt offended. To take revenge of the same, the accused persons assaulted them with an intention to kill them.

5. The complainant further alleged that he removed both injured Hardeep Singh and Tejender Pal Singh to General Hospital, Fatehabad from where his brother Hardeep Singh was referred to Hisar, on which he brought both of them to General Hospital, Hisar. Accordingly, I.O. after recording the statement of Bhagwan Singh made his endorsement and sent the same to the Police Station, on the basis of which, a formal FIR was recorded. The parcel containing the clothes of the injured Hardeep Singh was also taken into possession by ASI Radhey Sham. Investigations were initiated.

6. After the registration of the FIR, ASI Radhey Sham reached at the spot at 01.00 p.m. and remained there. He inspected the spot, prepared the rough site plan of place of occurrence and the incriminating articles from the spot were taken into possession by him. He also arrested the accused and the various weapons of offence were recovered by him in the present case. Ultimately, after conducting the necessary investigation, challan under Sections 307, 148 and 149 of IPC was presented against all the respondents. However, Gurmeet was separately charge-sheeted for committing the offence under Section 227 of the Arms Act. In the present case, all the respondents/accused, pleaded that they had been falsely involved and claimed to be tried.

7. In order to prove the charge against the respondents, 14 witnesses were examined by the pros