Case: State of Uttar Pradesh Vs. Hakim Singh and Others

The leading judgment was delivered by D. S. Mathur, J. with whom Mohd. Hamid Hussain, J. concurred. The details of the prosecution case are to be found in the judgment of the High Court and that of the trial court and is not necessary to repeat the same all over again.

Court's reasoning:
Moreover, as the murder took place nearabout midnight inside the house we could not have expected witnesses from outside to see the occurrence. On a perusal of evidence of PWs. 1 & 5, we are fully satisfied that these witnesses are stating the truth and have not concealed anything. We might also mention that although P. W. 1 was subjected to a grueling and searchingn yet nothing of importance was elicited from his evidence in order to shake his testimony. Furthermore, the evidence of P. W. 2 who was next door neighbour of P. Ws. 1 & 5 corroborates their evidence and we see no. reason to distrust his testimonyWe are also of the opinion that no. other reasonable view on the evidence could be possible than the one which was taken by the Sessions Court. We think that so far as arguments on the question of sentence is concerned, there is great substance in the same. Although this was a case of double murder, the appellants had been acquitted on3 and it will not be proper or expedient to impose the extreme penalty of death on the respondents, as was done by the trial court.