Pankaj Mithal JUDGMENT
Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, J.
1. This is an appeal preferred by the Accused Nos. 1 and 2. The learned Trial Court convicted Accused No. 3 - Paro Yadav, for the offence punishable Under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, 'IPC'). The Appellants were convicted for the offences punishable Under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 325 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The Appellants were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for the offence punishable Under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. They were also sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years for the offence punishable Under Section 325 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Separate appeals were preferred by the Appellants and Accused No. 3 before the Patna High Court. By the impugned judgment and order dated 7th October 2005, the appeals have been dismissed. The Accused No. 3 - Paro Yadav filed a Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Criminal) No. 4802 of 2006, which this Court dismissed vide its order dated 11th December 2006.
2. We are setting out the prosecution case in brief. PW-4 (Jagdish Manjhi) is the first informant. The incident occurred on 10th March 1997 when the PW-4 visited Village- Shrirampur to participate in a Baraat. At about noon, he went to Village-Chhitmakhanpur to meet his maternal nephew Gholti Yadav (deceased). After that, PW-4 and his cousin Narayan Manjhi (PW-5) and Gholti Yadav (deceased) proceeded to catch a train. They crossed the railway line, and when they were moving further, they found Appellant No. 1 - Maheshwari Yadav, standing there with a lathi (stick) in his hand. On seeing Appellant No. 1, the deceased warned PW-4 not to talk to Appellant No. 1. In the meanwhile, Appellant No. 2 - Mannu Yadav, and the Accused No. 3 came there. The Appellant No. 2 exhorted the Accused No. 3 to kill the deceased. The deceased tried to run away when the Accused No. 3 fired a bullet at him by a musket. The bullet hit the back of the deceased. He tried to run away. However, he fell near the wheat field of one Chadi Rai. After that, all the three Accused started assaulting the PW-4. When PW-5 tried to intervene, he was also assaulted by the Accused No. 3. The Accused No. 3 assaulted PW-4 with the butt of the musket. On hearing the noise, villagers came there when the Accused ran away. According to the prosecution case, apart from PW-4 and PW- 5, the incident was witnessed by PW-1 (Rinku Yadav), PW-2 (Pinku Yadav) and PW-3 (Subodh Pd. Yadav). Jawahar Yadav and one Tribedanand were also the witnesses who were not examined.
3. The motive pleaded by the prosecution is that two months before the incident, the Accused No. 3 had brought a horse of one Awadhi Yadav by committing theft. After learning about the theft, Awadhi Yadav called upon the Accused No. 3 to return the horse.........