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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.  475    OF 2013 (@SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(CRL.)NO.6215 OF 2010)  

RAM CHANDRA VERMA APPELLANT

                VERSUS

STATE OF UTTARAKHAND                             RESPONDENT

O R D E R

1. Leave granted.

2. This  appeal  by  special  leave  is  directed  against  the  

judgment  and  order  passed  by  the  High  Court  of  Uttarakhand  at  

Nainital in Criminal Jail Appeal No.243 of 2006, dated 18.11.2009.  

By the impugned judgment and order, the High Court has confirmed the  

judgment and order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge/Second  

Fast Track Court, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand in Session Trial  

No.68 of 2003, whereby and whereunder the learned Trial Judge has  

convicted the accused person under Section 302 of the Indian Penal  

Code,  1860  (for  short  'the  IPC')  and  sentenced  him  to  undergo  

imprisonment  for  life  along  with  a  fine  of  Rs.5,000/-  and,  in  

default of payment of fine, to further undergo imprisonment of one  

year.

3. The  prosecution  case  in  brief  is:  On  29.11.2002,  the  

appellant-accused  and  one  Sunil  Kumar  Verma  (for  short  ‘the  

deceased’) were returning home from work on a bicycle. The appellant  

was the pillion rider on the said bicycle driven by the deceased. On

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the way, the appellant shot at the back of the deceased’s head by a  

country made pistol, whereafter the deceased fell from the bicycle  

and died on the spot. PW-1, Anil Kumar Verma and PW-2, Mohd. Sazid  

witnessed the incident while they were heading towards the house of  

the deceased. They tried to catch hold of the appellant however he  

fled away. Thereafter, PW-1 lodged an FIR at P.S. Jaspur for offence  

punishable under Section 302 of the IPC.

4. Upon investigation, the appellant was charged for offences  

under Section 302 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959  

and the case was committed for trial.

5. During  the  trial,  the  prosecution  relied  upon  eight  

witnesses including PW-1, PW-2 and   PW-3 - Dr. Madan Mohan, who  

conducted post mortem examination of the deceased.  The Trial Court  

after due appreciation of evidence has reached the conclusion that  

the evidence of eye-witnesses, PW-1 and PW-2, corroborates with each  

other on all material facts and further that the injuries sustained  

by the deceased have been corroborated by the Post Mortem Report and  

the  evidence  of  PW-3  and  therefore  convicted  and  sentenced  the  

appellant for the aforesaid offences.  Aggrieved by the aforesaid  

judgment  and  order  of  the  Trial  Court,  the  appellant  had  filed  

Criminal Jail Appeal No. 243 of 2006 before the High Court.

6. The High Court after re-appreciation of entire evidence on  

record and analysis of submissions made by the parties has dismissed  

the  appeal  and  confirmed  the  conviction  and  sentence  of  the  

appellant. It is the correctness or otherwise of the judgment and

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order passed by the High Court which is in appeal before us in this  

appeal.

7. We  have  heard  Ms.  Minakshi  Vij,  learned  amicus  curiae  

appearing for the appellant and Shri Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, learned  

counsel appearing for the respondent-State.   

8. We  have  carefully  perused  the  evidence  of  the  two  

witnesses, namely, PW-1, who is none other than the brother of the  

deceased and PW-2, the servant of the deceased person. We have also  

seen the post-mortem report prepared by PW-3. We have also carefully  

perused the judgment(s) and order(s) passed by the Courts below.

10. In our considered opinion, the impugned judgment and order  

passed  by  the  High  Court  confirming  the  conviction  and  sentence  

awarded by the Trial Court does not suffer from any legal infirmity  

which  would  call  for  our  consideration  and  interference  and  

therefore, the appeal requires to be dismissed and stands dismissed  

accordingly.

11. Fee of learned amicus is assessed at Rs.7,000/-.

Ordered accordingly.   

.......................J.

(H.L. DATTU)

.......................J.

(JAGDISH SINGH KHEHAR)

NEW DELHI,

MARCH 19, 2013.