Case: State Of U.P Vs. Krishna Master

his brother in the incident as well as PW2 Madan Lal who lost five members of his family. Their evidence is found to be trustworthy and unimpeachable. As observed earlier, their evidence does not suffer from major contradiction and/or improvements nor noticeable embellishment have been made by them. As the prosecution has led acceptable eye-witnesses account of the incident, this Court is of the firm opinion that failure to establish motive would not entitle the respondents to claim acquittal.16. There is yet another evidence in form of oral dying declaration which implicates the appellants in the murder of six persons i.e. oral dying declaration made by deceased Baburam before his brother Jhabbulal. The High Court committed serious error in disbelieving the oral dying declration made by deceased Baburam before his real brother Jhabbulal (PW1) implicating the appellants as his assailants. The reasons given by the High Court for disbelieving oral dying declaration was that it was not mentioned by witness Jhabbulal either in his FIR or in his statement recorded under Section 161 of Cr.P.C. As observed earlier FIR need not be an encyclopedia of minute details of the incident nor it is necessary to mention therein the evidence on which prosecution proposes to rely at the trial. The basic purpose of filing FIR is to set the criminal law into motion and not to state all the minute details therein. It is relevant to notice that six brutal and gruesome murders had taken place wherein fire arms were used. The hard reality of life is that the persons who has lost kith and kin in horrific incident is likely to suffer great shock and therefore law would not expect him to mention minutest details either in his FIR or statement under Section 161. The question before the Court is whether the assertion made by the witness that soon after the incident he had gone to the place where his injured brother was lying and on enquiry by him, his brother had told him that the appellants were his assailants, inspires confidence of the Court. Reading the evidence of the witness as a whole, this Court points that it has ring of truth in it. There is nothing improbable if a brother approaches his injured brother and tries to know from him as to how he had received the injuries nor it is improbable that an enquiry being made the injured brother would not give reply/information sought from him. The assertion by witness Jhabbulal that after the incident was over he had gone near his injured brother and tried to know as to who were his assailants, whereupon his injured brother had replied that the appellants had caused injuries to him, could not be effectively challenged during cross-examination of the witness nor it could be brought on record that because of the nature of the injuries received by Baburam he would not have survived even for few minutes and must have died immediately on the receipt of the injuries.17. The net result of the above discussion is that the High Court has acquitted respondents who were charged for commission of six murders in a casual and slipshod manner. The approach of the High Court in appreciating the evidence is not only contrary to the well settled principles of appreciation of evidence but quite contrary to ground realities of life. The High Court has recorded reasons for acquittal of the respondents which are not borne out from the record and quite contrary to the evidences adduced by the reliable eye-witnesses. The High Court was not justified in upsetting well reasoned conviction of the respondents recorded by the Trial Court which after observing demur of the eye-witnesses had placed reliance on their testimony. The High Court has not taken into consideration the full text of the evidence adduced by the witnesses and picked up sentences here and there from the testimony of the witnesses to come to a particular purpose. For example, the High Court has not taken into consideration the whole testimony of DW1 before coming to the conclusion that there was complete darkness in the village which prevented the eye-witnesses from witnessing the incident. The general impression this Court has gathered is that appreciation of evidence by the High Court is cursory and has done injustice to the prosecution.18. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, this Court is of the firm opinion that it is firmly established by the prosecution that respondents are persons who had committed six murders on August 10/11, 1991 and, therefore, liable to be convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.19. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the parties regarding sentence to be imposed on each respondent for having committed offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. This Court notices that the Trial Court had sentenced all the three respondents to capital punishment. There is no manner of doubt that killing six persons and wiping almost the whole family on flimsy ground of honour saving of the family would fall within the rarest of rare case evolved by this Court and, therefore, the Trial Court was perfectly justified in imposing capital punishment on the respondents. However, this Court also notices that the incident had roughly taken place before 20 years, i.e., on August 10/11, 1991. Further, the High Court had acquitted the respondents by judgment dated April 12, 2002. After April 12, 2002 till this date, nothing adverse against any of the respondents is reported to this Court. To sentence the respondents to death after their acquittal in the year 2002 would not be justified on the facts and in the circumstances of the case. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that interest of justice would be served if each of the respondent is sentenced to RI for life and a fine of Rs.25,000/- each in default RI for two years for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]13. The abovestated reasons are the only grounds on which testimony of witness Madan Lal is disbelieved by the High Court. This Court fails to understand as to on what principle and on which experience in real life, the High Court made a sweeping observation that it is inconceivable that a child of Madan Lals understanding would be able to recapitulate facts in his memory witnessed by him long ago. There is no principle of law known to this Court that it is inconceivable that a child of tender age would not be able to recapitulate facts in his memory witnessed by him long ago. This witness has claimed on oath before the Court that he had seen five members of his family being ruthlessly killed by the respondents by firing gun shots. When a child of tender age witnesses gruesome murder of his father, mother, brothers etc. he is not likely to forget the incident for his whole life and would certainly recapitulate facts in his memory when asked about the same at any point of time, notwithstanding the gap of about ten years between the incident and recording of his evidence. This Court is of the firm opinion that it would be doing injustice to a child witness possessing sharp memory to say that it is inconceivable for him to recapitulate facts in his memory witnessed by him long ago. A child of tender age is always receptive to abnormal events which take place in its life and would never forget those events for the rest of his life. The child would be able to recapitulate correctly and exactly when asked about the same in future. Therefore, the spacious ground on which the reliable testimony of PW2, Madan Lal came to be disbelieved can hardly be affirmed by this Court. One of the reasons given by the High Court to disbelieve testimony of witness Madan Lal is that Rajesh and Smt. Sarla who were of mature age and were in a better position to depose about the incident were not produced before the Court. It is nobodys case that witness Madan lal was in charge of prosecution case. The Public Prosecutor was in charge of the case and it was for him to decide whether Rajesh and/or Smt. Sarla should be examined or not. The evidence of witness Madan Lal, in no uncertain terms, discloses that his brother Rajesh and sister Smt. Sarla were ready to depose before the Court about the incident. However, forof his brother Rajesh and his sister Sarla before the Court, witness Madan Lal was never responsible. He had not taken any decision for examining his brother Rajesh and Smt. Sarla. It was the discretion and decision of the Public Prosecutor due to which his brother and sister were not examined as witnesses. At no stage of the trial, the defence had made a request to the Trial Court to call upon the Public Prosecutor to examine Rajesh and Smt. Sarla as witnesses. It is the case of the defence that Rajesh and Smt. Sarla had witnessed the incident and if they had been examined as witnesses, they would have deposed against the prosecution case that the respondents were not responsible for murders of five family members of Guljari and brother of the first informant. In such circumstances, it was incumbent upon and open to the defence to examine Rajesh and/or Smt. Sarla as defence witness. No prayer was made by the defence to examine Rajesh and Smt. Sarla even as court witnesses. Therefore, forof Rajesh and/or Smt. Sarla, witness Madan Lal could not have been blamed nor his evidence could have been brushed aside in a casual manner. The acceptance of submission made by the counsel for the respondents that Rajesh and Smt. Sarla were not produced because they were not prepared to support the false story set up by PW1, Jhabbulal in his FIR against the respondents on account of his personal animosity, is not understandable at all and appears to be figment of imagination of the defence. Nothing could be brought on record or elicited from theof either PW1 Jhabbulal or PW2 Madan Lal to show that they were ready and willing to allow real culprits who had committed heinous crime and virtually wiped off family of Guljari and murdered real brother of the first informant to go scot free and implicate the respondents falsely in such a serious case.14. One of the reasons given by the High Court for disbelieving testimony of PW2, Madan Lal is that the evidence indicated that a large number of villagers had gathered outside the door of Gulzari Lals house but not even one of them was examined to justify that PW2 Madan Lal was present in his house. The High Court has further held that presence of witness Madan Lal in his house becomes doubtful because if he had been present inside the house at the time of occurrence, his presence would have been noticed by the assailants and he would not have been spared by them. To say the least, these reasons are not tenable at all. As noticed earlier, the case of witness Madan lal is that on hearing sound of gun shots, he had slipped beneath the cot and from there witnessed the whole incident. This story appears to be probable because the incident had taken place during night time in the house and therefore it was possible for the witness to slip beneath the cot without being noticed by the assailants. It is nobodys case that the respondents, while killing Guljari and his family, had seen below the cot to find out whether any other member of Guljaris family was alive or not. Therefore, to say that Madanlal must not have been inside the room otherwise he would have been killed by the assailants is a far fitted reason which does not appeal to this Court. It is true that it has come in evidence that a large number of villagers had gathered outside the door of Guljari Lals house. But this Court is of the opinion that it was not necessary for the prosecution to examine any of the witnesses to prove that he had seen PW2 Madan Lal in Madan Lals house. PW2 Madan Lal himself is competent to state before the Court whether he was present in his house at the time of incident. Witness Madan Lal has given evidence in a simple manner without making any noticeable improvements and/or embellishments and, therefore, it was not necessary for the court to seek corroboration to his assertion that he was in his house when the incident had taken place. What is relevant to notice is that the court cannot forget the fact that at the time of incident, PW2 Madan Lal was a tender aged child. Normally, a child aged six years is not expected to be out of house at the dead of night and he is expected to be in the company of his parents. Moreover, the testimony of witness Lajveer Singh, PW3, who was posted at Police Station, Kayamganj, Farrukhabad shows that after registration of offences, ASI Gajraj Singh had recorded statements of those persons who were found to be conversant with the facts of the case and Gajraj Singh had also recorded statement of witness Madan Lal on August 11, 1991. If witness Madan lal had not been present in his house at the time when the incident had taken place, his police statement would not have been recorded by ASI Gajraj Singh at all. Thus, the reasons on which presence of PW2, Madan Lal is doubted is against the weight of evidence, human conduct and preponderance of probabilities. Further, at the time of incident, PW2, Madan Lal was of tender age and, therefore, incapable of nurturing any grudge against any of the respondents. No evidence could be produced nor any suggestion was made to witness Madan Lal during histhat something serious had happened between the date of incident and recording of evidence of witness Madan Lal in court, between Madan Lal and the respondents that Madan Lal was out to implicate the respondents falsely in such a serious case.15. One of the grounds mentioned by the High Court in the impugned judgment for disbelieving the case of the prosecution is that Rajesh who was brother of PW2, Madan Lal and Smt. Sarla who is sister of witness Madan Lal as well as few of those who had collected near the door of the house of Guljari after the incident were not examined as witnesses in this case. As far as this ground is concerned, the Court notices that Section 134 of the Indian Evidence Act specifically provides that no particular number of witnesses shall, in any case, be required for the proof of any fact. It is well known principal of law that reliance can be placed on the solitary statement of a witness if the court comes to the conclusion that the said statement is the true and correct version of the case of the prosecution. The courts are concerned with the merit and the statement of a particular witness and not at all concerned with the number of witnesses examined by the prosecution. Therule of appreciating evidence is that it has to be weighed and not counted. The law of evidence does not require any particular number of witnesses to be examined in proof of a given fact. However, where, the court finds that the testimony of solitary witness is neither wholly reliable nor wholly unreliable, it may, in given set of facts, seek corroboration but to disbelieve reliable testimony of a solitary witness on the ground that others have not been examined is to do complete injustice to the prosecution. This Court, onof evidence, finds that the testimony of witness Madan Lal is cogent, consistent and reliable. Taking into consideration the manner in which witness Madan Lal had testified before the Court and the fact that nothing could be elicited in his lengthyfor days together to impeach his credibility, this Court is of the view that his testimony is reliable and can be accepted without any reservations. Therefore,of his brother or sister or few others who had gathered near the house of deceased Guljari Lal after the incident is of no significance and does not affect credibility of testimony of the said witness. Cumulative effect of the above discussion is that the High Court was not justified in brushing aside testimony of PW2, Madan Lal while considering case of the prosecution against the respondents.Yet another ground assigned by the High Court for disbelieving the testimony of first informant Jhabbulal and that of PW2 Madan Lal is that there was no electricity light in the village and, therefore, the claim made by both the witnesses that they had witnessed the incident in the light of electricity is untrustworthy. To begin with, this Court proposes to refer to the First Information Report lodged by witness Jhabbulal. The said report was brought on the record as ExhibitIn the report, it is clearly mentioned that at the time of occurrence of the incident, there was electricity light at the place of incident and with the help of the said light, the first informant was able to witness the incident wherein five members of deceased Guljaris family came to be murdered by the respondents. The witness Jhabbulal has further stated that his brother Babu Ram, who was sleeping in his shop was dragged out from the shop by the respondents by breaking open the door of the shop and thereafter was murdered by them by firing gun shots. Regarding murder of Babu Ram also, it is mentioned in the First Information Report that electric bulb was burning at his house at the time of occurrence of the incident and, therefore, he was able to witness the murder of his brother Babu Ram. PW2, Madan Lal has stated that his father, mother and three real brothers were murdered by the respondents by firing gun shots and had asserted that at the time of the incident one bulb was burning on the main gate of his house whereas another bulb was burning on the thatched roof, i.e., near the place where the deceased had slept during the night of the incident. Though both the witnesses wereat great length by the learned counsel for the defence, nothing significant could be brought on record from which one can, with certainty deduce that there was no light of electricity bulbs at the place of the incident. Apart from what is mentioned by the tworegarding sufficiency of electricity light in which they had witnessed the incident, the sketch of the spot prepared by the Investigating Officer on August 11, 1991 in the presence of independent witnesses and produced as Exhibitshows that point `L mentioned in the panchnama of place of occurrence, a bulb has been shown burning at the main gate of the house of PW2 Madan Lal whereas another bulb is shown burning at the place mentioned as `AL. Thus, assertion made by the two eyewitnesses that they were able to witness the incident because of availability of sufficient electricity light gets corroboration from contemporaneous document, namely, ExhibitAccording to the High Court, the place pointed by PW2, Madan Lal where an electric bulb was hanging has not been shown in the site plan and on the contrary it has been shown at a different place. Even if it is assumed that the place mentioned by PW2, Madan Lal where an electric bulb was hanging is different from the place shown in the site plan, the fact remains that an electric bulb was hanging at the place of incident which is completely ignored by the High Court. It is relevant to notice that PW2, during the course of recording of his statement before the Court had mentioned that he had shown to the Investigating Officer the place where the bulb was hanging but he was not in a position to specify the reason as to why the place shown by him to the Investigating Officer was not mentioned in the site plan. It may be mentioned that the Investigating Officer ASI Gajraj Singh, unfortunately, expired before the commencement of the trial and, therefore, another officer was examined who had taken a little part in the investigation. Thus, the contradiction and/or omission in the statement of the witness recorded under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code could not be brought on the record of the case. In such circumstances, there was no reason for the High Court to disbelieve the claim made by PW2 Madan lal that he had shown to the Investigating Officer the place where the bulb was hanging. Jhabbulal had stated in this evidence that Guljari had taken electric line illegally be putting a wire on the main line which proceeded to the tube well of Suresh Chand DW1. The High Court relied upon the testimony of Suresh Chand that no villager had taken electricity from his tube well line and thereafter concluded that there was complete darkness in the whole village on account of Amavasya of rainy season and, therefore, it was not possible for the twoto witness the incident. It becomes absolutely necessary for this Court to scan the evidence of DW1. DW1 in his evidence before the Court stated that he was having a tubewell in village Lakhanpur prior to the date of incident and that tubewell was being operated with the electric power. It was also mentioned by him that the electricity connection was in running condition and that the electricity line passes through the village. What is stated by the witness is that during the night of the incident, he was not present in his village Lakhanpur but had gone to his sisters house situated in another village and that he had come back to his village on the third day of the date of the incident. If this witness was not present on the date of incident, he was least competent to depose before the Court as to whether on the date of incident there was electricity light in the village or not. A specific question as to whether on the fateful night electricity was taken illegally by putting Katiya to his wire was put to this witness. This witness was not able to answer this specific query naturally because he had admitted that on the date of incident he was not present in the village. The Trial Court rightly observed that it was not concerned with the question whether the electric power was being consumed by the villagers legally or illegally and that the Court was only concerned with the question whether there was sufficient light on the date of incident to enable the witnesses to see the incident. The High Court has misread the evidence of DW1 Suresh Chand as well as that of PW2 Madan Lal, wherein it was asserted by him that he had also taken illegal electricity connection and was consuming the same through the bulbs which according to him were burning on the date of incident. Thus the reliable evidence of PW1 and PW2 cannot be brushed aside on the ground that Investigating Officer had not taken into possession the bulbs hanging on the place of incident. Thus, the High Court was not justified in holding that there was no electric power in the whole village and that there was complete darkness on account of Amavasya of rainy season due to which it was impossible for theto witness the incident. Further, the visibility capacity of urban people is not the standard to be applied to the villagers. PW2 Madan Lal has stated that the respondents had brought with them torches but as light of electricity was available in the house, torches were not put on. Thus, according to PW2 Madan Lal the respondents had in the light of electric bulb recognized the deceased persons and had fired gun shots on them. Further, if light available was sufficient for the accused persons to identify their targets for firing shots, there is no reason why the witnesses would not be able to identify the respondents as the assailants. The statement of PW1 Jhabbulal that Guljari had taken electric line illegally by putting a wire on the main line which proceeded to the tube well was disbelieved by the High Court on the ground that the Investigating Officer had not mentioned either in the site plan or in the inspection note that electric line had been taken in an unauthorized manner from the main line which proceeded to theof Suresh Chand. It is common experience of one and all that site plan or panchnama of place of incident is being prepared to indicate the state of things found at the place of incident. In site plan, Investigating Officer is not supposed to note whether electric line had been taken in an unauthorized manner or not. That is not the purpose for which site plan is prepared in a criminal case. Thus, without sufficient reason the High Court disbelieved the claim made by PW1 Jhabbulal that deceased Guljari had taken electric line illegally by putting a wire on the main line. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case emerging from the record, this Court is of the opinion that the High Court was not justified in coming to the conclusion that there was complete darkness in the whole village and, therefore, it was not possible for theto see the incident.The High Court has further held that motive alleged against deceased Guljari was developed for the first time during trial by witness Jhabbulal and there was no motive for the respondents to commit the murders of as many as five persons of the family of Gulzari Lal. A conjoint and purposeful reading of FIR with the reliable testimony of PW1 Jhabbulal and that of PW2 Madan Lal makes it very clear that the respondents were agitated and angry when the daughter of respondent No.1 had eloped with the son of the first informant. The evidence on record further shows that during the time of first elopement, on one day son of the first informant, i.e., Amar Singh, was spotted in the village and on learning about the fact that son of the first informant was seen in the village, the respondents were prepared to take revenge to what is known as to maintain honour of the family. However, the fact that Amar Singh was likely to be assaulted by the respondents had become known to wife of Guljari who hadforewarned Amar Singhand Amar Singh had, therefore, left the village to save his life. The evidence also indicates that the fact that Amar Singh had left the village all of a sudden because of information conveyed by wife of the deceased Gulzari that respondents were to assault him was later on learnt by the respondents and, therefore, the respondents were bearing a grudge against wife of Gulzari and against Gulzari. The record further shows that when the daughter of the respondent No.1 had returned to the village, Guljari in the presence of the first informant had made a suggestion to the respondent No.1 that he should get his daughter married with the son of the first informant upon which the respondent No.1 had taken an offence and asked Gulzari not to play with the honour of his family. This Court is of the opinion that sufficient evidence has been led by the prosecution to establish motive which prompted the respondents to kill five members of family of deceased Guljari. What weighed with the High Court in disbelieving the motive suggested by the prosecution was the fact that in the FIR lodged by PW1 Jhabbulal, it was not stated that because wife of Gulzari hadforewarned Amar Singhabout impending assault on him by the respondents, the respondents were not able to take revenge against Amar Singh and that Gulzari had suggested to the respondent No.1 to get his daughter married with son of PW1. The High Court held that such story was developed for the first time during trial by witness Jhabbulal who was admittedly on inimical terms with the respondents. As far as this aspect is concerned, this Court notices that the FIR need not be an encyclopedia of all the facts and circumstances on which the prosecution relies. The main purpose of the FIR is to enable a police officer to satisfy himself as to whether commission of cognizable offences is indicated so that further investigation can be undertaken by him. The purpose of the FIR is to set the criminal law in motion and it is not customary to mention every minute detail of the prosecution case in the FIR. FIR is never treated as a substantive piece of evidence and has a limited use, i.e., it can be used for the corroborating or contradicting the maker of it. Law requires FIR to contain basic prosecution case and not minute details. The law developed on the subject is that even if an accused is not named in the FIR he can be held guilty if prosecution leads reliable and satisfactory evidence which proves his participation in crime. Similarly, the witnesses whose names are not mentioned in the FIR but examined during the course of trial can be relied upon for the purpose of basing conviction against the accused.of motive in the FIR cannot be regarded as omission to state important and material fact. As a principle, it has been ruled by this Court that omission to give details in the FIR as to manner in which weapon was used by accused is not material omission amounting to contradiction. Further, this is a case wherein FIR was filed by a rustic man and, therefore,of motive in the FIR cannot be attached much importance. In Superintendent of Police, CBI & Ors. vs. Tapan Kumar Singh, AIR 2003 SC 4140 , it has been held by this Court that mere absence of indication about source of light in the FIR for identifying assailants does not, in any way, affect prosecution version. The FIR is not the last words in the prosecution case and in some cases detailed FIR could be a ground for suspicion. What is relevant to find out is whether the FIR was lodged promptly and whether it is actuated by mala fides. The record of this case indicates that FIR regarding gruesome murder of six persons was filed promptly and without any avoidable delay and, therefore, false implication of any of the respondents in such a grievous case stands ruled out. There is nothing on the record to show that FIR was result of deliberation by the first informant with other persons. As the FIR was lodged promptly, the informant, i.e., Jhabbulals evidence containing minor variations not affecting substratum of prosecution story cannot be discarded on the ground that motive which prompted the respondents to kill six persons was not mentioned in the FIR. Further, it is well settled that the prosecution is not supposed to prove motive when prosecution relies on direct evidence, i.e., evidence ofIn this case, the prosecution has examined first informant as PW1 who has lost his brother in the incident as well as PW2 Madan Lal who lost five members of his family. Their evidence is found to be trustworthy and unimpeachable. As observed earlier, their evidence does not suffer from major contradiction and/or improvements nor noticeable embellishment have been made by them. As the prosecution has led acceptableaccount of the incident, this Court is of the firm opinion that failure to establish motive would not entitle the respondents to claim acquittal.16. There is yet another evidence in form of oral dying declaration which implicates the appellants in the murder of six persons i.e. oral dying declaration made by deceased Baburam before his brother Jhabbulal. The High Court committed serious error in disbelieving the oral dying declration made by deceased Baburam before his real brother Jhabbulal (PW1) implicating the appellants as his assailants. The reasons given by the High Court for disbelieving oral dying declaration was that it was not mentioned by witness Jhabbulal either in his FIR or in his statement recorded under Section 161 of Cr.P.C. As observed earlier FIR need not be an encyclopedia of minute details of the incident nor it is necessary to mention therein the evidence on which prosecution proposes to rely at the trial. The basic purpose of filing FIR is to set the criminal law into motion and not to state all the minute details therein. It is relevant to notice that six brutal and gruesome murders had taken place wherein fire arms were used. The hard reality of life is that the persons who has lost kith and kin in horrific incident is likely to suffer great shock and therefore law would not expect him to mention minutest details either in his FIR or statement under Section 161. The question before the Court is whether the assertion made by the witness that soon after the incident he had gone to the place where his injured brother was lying and on enquiry by him, his brother had told him that the appellants were his assailants, inspires confidence of the Court. Reading the evidence of the witness as a whole, this Court points that it has ring of truth in it. There is nothing improbable if a brother approaches his injured brother and tries to know from him as to how he had received the injuries nor it is improbable that an enquiry being made the injured brother would not give reply/information sought from him. The assertion by witness Jhabbulal that after the incident was over he had gone near his injured brother and tried to know as to who were his assailants, whereupon his injured brother had replied that the appellants had caused injuries to him, could not be effectively challenged duringof the witness nor it could be brought on record that because of the nature of the injuries received by Baburam he would not have survived even for few minutes and must have died immediately on the receipt of the injuries.17. The net result of the above discussion is that the High Court has acquitted respondents who were charged for commission of six murders in a casual and slipshod manner. The approach of the High Court in appreciating the evidence is not only contrary to the well settled principles of appreciation of evidence but quite contrary to ground realities of life. The High Court has recorded reasons for acquittal of the respondents which are not borne out from the record and quite contrary to the evidences adduced by the reliableThe High Court was not justified in upsetting well reasoned conviction of the respondents recorded by the Trial Court which after observing demur of thehad placed reliance on their testimony. The High Court has not taken into consideration the full text of the evidence adduced by the witnesses and picked up sentences here and there from the testimony of the witnesses to come to a particular purpose. For example, the High Court has not taken into consideration the whole testimony of DW1 before coming to the conclusion that there was complete darkness in the village which prevented thefrom witnessing the incident. The general impression this Court has gathered is that appreciation of evidence by the High Court is cursory and has done injustice to the prosecution.18. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, this Court is of the firm opinion that it is firmly established by the prosecution that respondents are persons who had committed six murders on August 10/11, 1991 and, therefore, liable to be convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.19. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the parties regarding sentence to be imposed on each respondent for having committed offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. This Court notices that the Trial Court had sentenced all the three respondents to capital punishment. There is no manner of doubt that killing six persons and wiping almost the whole family on flimsy ground of honour saving of the family would fall within the rarest of rare case evolved by this Court and, therefore, the Trial Court was perfectly justified in imposing capital punishment on the respondents. However, this Court also notices that the incident had roughly taken place before 20 years, i.e., on August 10/11, 1991. Further, the High Court had acquitted the respondents by judgment dated April 12, 2002. After April 12, 2002 till this date, nothing adverse against any of the respondents is reported to this Court. To sentence the respondents to death after their acquittal in the year 2002 would not be justified on the facts and in the circumstances of the case. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that interest of justice would be served if each of the respondent is sentenced to RI for life and a fine of Rs.25,000/each in default RI for two years for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.