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REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NOs. 1551-1554 OF 2008

State of Uttar Pradesh   …..Appellant

versus

Narendra and others   

….Respondents

J U D G M E N T

M.Y. EQBAL, J.

These appeals by special leave by the State are  

directed against the common judgment and order dated 27th  

May,  2005  passed  by  the  High  Court  of  Judicature  at  

Allahabad in Criminal Appeal Nos. 2181, 1997, 2027, 2129,  

2936  and 2903 of  2004  and Criminal  Reference  No.  7  of  

2004 (for confirmation of death sentence of accused Manoj,  

Sonu,  Umesh,  Tej  Pal  and  Narendra),  whereby  appeals  of  

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accused Dinesh and Sheo Pal was allowed acquitting them of  

the charges and appeals of accused Manoj, Sonu, Umesh, Tej  

Pal and Narendra were partly allowed converting their death  

sentence to life imprisonment.

2. The facts in  brief  leading to the filing of  the present  

case are that  one Pushplata alias  Guddy (PW-1)  lodged a  

report at Police station Deoband, Saharanpur that there was  

a  dispute  and  enmity  between  her  husband  Dr.  Rajveer  

Singh and brother-in-law Rajpal Singh with regard to a land  

and litigation which was pending in the Court. Due to said  

enmity,  on  3.6.2001  at  about  7.00  AM Manoj,  Sonu  alias  

Ajay, Umesh and Sunil armed with country made pistols and  

Tej Pal, brother in-law of Sonu, Narendra, son-in-law of Rajpal  

Singh armed with knives came to her house and killed her  

husband, sons Manish and Ashish and her brother Vinod with  

fire  arms and knives.  She stated that  she along with  her  

mother,  brother Amit and several other persons witnessed  

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the occurrence.  Inspector Amrit  Lal  (PW-5) reached at the  

place of occurrence and instructed S.I. Azad Singh Chauhan  

(PW-6) to prepare the inquest memos. He prepared the site  

plan  and  recorded  the  statement  of  informant  Pushplata,  

witnesses Amit Kumar, Anar Devi and   Ram  Singh (PW-2).  

He also collected the blood stained earth, plain earth, bed  

sheet,  plain  cement,  empty  cartridges  and  prepared  the  

recovery memos.  After  conducting the postmortem of  the  

deceased Rajbir, Manish, Ashish and Vinod on 3.6.2001, Dr.  

R.R.  Gahlot  (PW-3),  Medical  Officer,  S.B.D.  Government  

Hospital, Saharanpur opined that the death was caused by  

shock and haemorrhage as a result of ante mortem injuries.  

The  investigating  Officer  after  obtaining  permission  from  

District  Magistrate,  Saharanpur  filed  charge-sheet  in  the  

court  under  Section  25  of  Arms  Act  against  the  accused  

Manoj, Sonu@ Ajay and Umesh.  

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3.  The trial  court framed charges under Sections  148,  

452, 302/149 and 302/120-B against Manoj,  Sonu, Umesh,  

Tejpal,  Narendra,  Rajpal,  Dinesh  and  Shiv  Pal.   Accused  

Manoj,  Sonu  alias  Ajay  and  Umesh  were  further  charged  

under Section 25 of the Arms Act.  The prosecution, in order  

to prove its case, examined ten witnesses out of which PW1  

and PW-2 are the eye witnesses of the occurrence.  Whereas  

the defence examined five witnesses.

4. During the course of trial accused Rajpal expired, hence  

the  case  was  dropped against  him and trial  of  remaining  

accused  continued.  The  trail  court  by  its  order  dated  

31.3.2004 passed in S.T. Case No.885 of 2001 convicted the  

accused Manoj,  Sonu, Umesh, Tej Pal and Narendra under  

Section 302/149 IPC and sentenced to death, under Section  

148 IPC sentencing them to undergo rigorous imprisonment  

(R.I.  for  short)  for  three years  and under Section 452 IPC  

sentencing them to undergo RI for five years and a fine of  

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Rs.  3000/-,  in  default  of  payment  of  fine  R.I.  for  three  

months.   Accused  Manoj,  Sonu  and  Umesh  were  further  

convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act and sentenced  

to undergo imprisonment for two years.  Accused Dinesh and  

Shiv Pal were convicted under Section 302/120-B, IPC and  

sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs.  

10,000/- each, in default of payment of fine R.I. for one year.

5. Aggrieved by the decision of the trial court, the accused  

preferred  appeals  before  the  High  Court  of  judicature  at  

Allahabad. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties  

and  analyzing  the  evidence,  the  High  Court  opined  that  

considering the overall circumstances of the case, this case  

does not fall within the category of rarest of rare case and it  

cannot be said that imprisonment for lesser sentence of life  

term altogether  foreclosed.  The High  Court  observed that  

compassion in sentence is also a key factor and it allows the  

scars to heal.   Longevity of incarceration may make them  

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see reason. Passage of time may make them ponder over  

the crime they had committed.  This might arose in them a  

feeling of remorse and repentance.  Dismissing the Criminal  

Reference and partly allowing accused persons’ appeals, the  

High  Court  converted the death sentence awarded to  the  

accused  Manoj,  Sonu,  Umesh,  Tej  Pal  and  Narendra  into  

imprisonment for life. Appeals of accused Dinesh and Sheo  

Pal were allowed and they were acquitted of all the charges.  

6. Hence, the present Appeals by Special Leave preferred  

by the State.

7. We  have  heard  Mr.  Ratnakar  Dash,  learned  senior  

counsel appearing for the State and Ms. Sandhya Goswami,  

learned counsel  appearing for  the respondents.   We have  

given our final consideration in the matter and have gone  

through  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  of  the  case  and  

evidence adduced by the prosecution side.  We do not find  

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any  reason  to  disagree  with  the  view  taken  by  the  High  

Court in reducing the death sentence into life imprisonment.

8. For the reasons above stated, we don’t find any merit in  

these appeals and the same are dismissed.

…………………………….J. [ M.Y. Eqbal]

…………………………….J. [Pinaki Chandra Ghose]

New Delhi September 22, 2014

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