- (1.)SIX persons namely appellant Jagdish and his brother Parath, Babu and his brother Begraj. Mahabir and Ram Nath were tried by the IInd Addl. Sessions Judge of Mujaffarnagar on an indictment that on 1st of May, 1965. at about 10 a. m. they had formed an unlawful assembly having armed themselves with lethal weapons and in prosecution of their common object had committed the murder of Ram Nath son of Kishun Dayal near a culvert at Ghaloli-Rohana road in the district of Muzaffarnagar. The learned Sessions Judge held appellant Jagdish guilty under Section 302 I. P. C and sentenced him to death. The other five accused were acquitted on the finding that "there is no doubt that they did not participate in the incident. " Appellant Jagdish has come up in appeal against his conviction and sentence and the learned Sessions Judge has made a reference for the confirmation of the sentence of death inflicted on the appellant.
(2.)THE prosecution rase in short is as follows. One Sadho Singh a brother of Jagdish, was murdered about two years before the incident in question. In December 1963 in the trial which was held in respect of his murder Ram Nath (the victim ). his father Kishun Dayal and some others were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. They were, however, released on ball and an application filed by Parath for the cancellation of their bail was dismissed by this Court Begraj had lodged the first information report regarding the murder of Sadho Singh and Ram Nath and Jagdish had appealed as prosecution witnesses in that case. Eight or ten years before, appellant Jagdish and some others had been convicted for having beaten Kishun Dayal and Ram Nath. Jagdish and his collaterals had filed suits in the Panchatti Adalat for recovery of money against Ram Nath and those suits had been decreed but the decrees were set aside by the court of Munsif. It is alleged that on the 1st of May, 1965, Ram Nath went on his tyred bullock cart to Rohana for bringing drums of diesel oil. His residential village Ghaloli which lies at a distance of 1 1/2 miles from Muzaffarnagar is connected to Rohana by a pacca road which passes on a culvert and there is an unmanned railway crossing at a distance of about 100 paces from the culvert. When Ram Nath after having crossed the railway crossing was approaching the culvert this appellant and the other five acquitted persons who wore lying in ambush under the culvert suddenly appeared on the road. Appellant. Tagdish. Mahabir and Begraj were holding a gun each and Parath, Babu and Ram Nath were carrying lathis. Sensing danger from them Ram Nath jumped down from his cart and fled Appellant Jagdish, Begrai and Mahabir chased and fired at him. Ram Nath who was hit first fell down on the road, got up and then struggled in a small pit which was lying adjacent to the road on its south. Jagdish. Begraj and Mahabir came to the pit and fired on injured Ram Nath three more shots from close range which resulted in his instantaneous death. Sukhbir. Buddhu, Moola and Nathoo (P. W. 2 to 5) who were passing on the road at that time reprimanded the assailants but they were asked to keep themselves at a distance to avoid meeting a similar fate. The assailants thereafter ran away towards the village. Kishen Dayal, deceased's father, who was at his field at a distance of about three furlongs from village Ghaloli on being informed by Buddhu about the incident came to !he spot and found his son Ram Nath lying dead in the pit. Sukbir, Nathoo and Moola were still present there. Hearing details from them he dictated a report to his son Murari and lodged the same at police station Deoband seven miles away at, 11-45 a. m. On the basis of this report a case was registered and investigation followed.
(3.)SUB-INSPECTOR Bai. j Nath Singh reached the spot at about 2-30 p. m. on the same date. He found three fired cartridges lying in the pit near the dead body and blood spilt there. He obtained sample of the blood stained earth, recovered the cartridges and put them in a sealed cover in the presence of the witnesses. He searched for the accused but could not trace them. A licenced gun Exh. 2 of Jagdish along with some cartridges and another licenced gun Exh. 3 of Mahabir with cartridges were recovered on search of their respective houses. They were put in separate scaled covers and their recovery memos were prepared in the presence of the witnesses. The dead body of Ram Nath was thereafter sent for post-mortem examination.