MADAN versus STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

Citation: [2023] 16 S.C.R. 765 · Decided: 09-11-2023 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: BHUSHAN RAMKRISHNA GAVAI · Disposal: Disposed off

Cited by 1 judgment(s) · cites 15 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

[2023] 16 S.C.R. 765 : 2023 INSC 990
765
CASE DETAILS
MADAN
v.
STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH
(Criminal Appeal Nos. 1381-1382 of 2017)
NOVEMBER 09, 2023
[B. R. GAVAI, B.V. NAGARATHNA AND 
PRASHANT KUMAR MISHRA, JJ.]
HEADNOTES
Issue for consideration: Six deaths were caused on account of brutal 
fi ring by the appellants and other accused persons. The trial court imposed 
sentence of capital punishment to the appellants (‘M’ and ‘S’) herein for the 
off ence punishable u/s. 302 r/w. s.149 of IPC, while it sentenced accused 
‘I’ to imprisonment for life for the same. (i) Whether the prosecution has 
proved beyond reasonable doubt the case for conviction u/s. 302 of IPC; 
(ii) Whether the present case falls in the category of rarest of rare cases; (ii) 
Whether on the facts of the present case, the capital punishment imposed 
on appellant- deserves to be maintained or not.
Penal Code, 1860 – s. 302 r/w. s.149 – The High Court, by the 
impugned judgment, while commuting the sentence of appellant ‘S’ from 
capital punishment to imprisonment for life, dismissed the appeals fi led 
by appellant ‘M’ and accused ‘I’ and confi rmed their conviction and 
sentence awarded by the trial court – The High Court further confi rmed 
the Death Reference of the appellant ‘M’ – Propriety:
Held: The incident has taken place in two parts: The fi rst place is near 
the house of ‘R’ – Appellant ‘M’ along with ‘I’ and other accused armed with 
licensed guns, rifl es and country-made pistols came from behind and started 
fi ring indiscriminately – As a result of which, two fell down on the Khadanja 
and died on the spot – When ‘MA’, after hearing the sound of gunfi re, came 
out of his house, the accused persons also fi red shots at him – As a result of 
which, he also fell down – The second place is the house of Up-Pradhan-
766 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2023] 16 S.C.R.
‘RN’ – After indiscriminate fi ring by the accused persons, deceased ‘RK’ and 
PW-2 ran away to save their lives and RK entered the house of ‘RN’ – The 
accused persons followed them and entered into the house of ‘RN’ and fi red 
shots at RK and two other persons – As a result of which, all three died – The 
prosecution has duly proved its case beyond reasonable doubt in view of the 
testimony of PW-1 being duly corroborated by the testimonies of PW-10 
and PW-11 – This Court is of the considered view that the testimonies of 
these witnesses duly establish that these witnesses have witnessed the fi ring 
on three persons, who died on the spot – These witnesses have also seen 
the accused persons assaulting RK and PW-2 who had received the fi rearm 
injuries, who ran to the house of to take shelter – This Court is further of the 
considered view that though PW-7 is a sole witness insofar as the fi ring on 
deceased three persons is concerned, his testimony is cogent, reliable and 
trustworthy and can be made basis for coming to a conclusion that it is the 
present appellants along with other accused who have caused the death of 
deceased – In any case, his testimony is duly corroborated by the evidence 
of PW-1 who had immediately come to the second spot after the occurrence 
of the incident when PW-7 informed PW-1 about the incident occurring 
in his house – In the instant case, both the High Court and the trial court 
have meticulously scrutinized the evidence and found the testimony of the 
eye witnesses trustworthy and reliable – This Court after scrutinizing the 
evidence again fi nd that merely because there are certain inconsistencies 
in the evidence of the witnesses, their evidence cannot be discarded – In 
totality of the circumstances, the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable 
doubt the case for conviction u/s. 302 of IPC and the appeals in that regard 
are liable to be rejected. [Paras 27, 39, 42, 43, 49]
Penal Code, 1860 – Whether the present case falls in the category 
of rarest of rare cases:
Held: Six deaths were caused on account of brutal fi ring by the 
appellants and other accused persons – The entire village and the people 
residing in the surrounding areas must have been shocked by such heinous 
and gruesome act – Not only that, one of the eye witnesses was also murdered 
during the pendency of the trial – The terror of the appellants and other 
accused persons was of such a high magnitude that even the witnesses who 
had received grievous injuries did not support the prosecution case and were 
767
required to be declared hostile – As such, four innocent persons were shot 
from 

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