LAKSHMAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned common judgment and order dated 31.10.2018 passed by the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi in Criminal Appeal Nos. 232/1999 and 242/1999, by which the High Court has dismissed the said appeals preferred by the appellants herein and has confirmed the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned trial Court convicting the appellants for the offences under Sections 323 and 147 I PC and sentencing them to undergo six months simple imprisonment under both sections, original accused nos. 9, 8, 12, 11, 10, 14, 2 and 13 -Lakshman Singh, Shiv Kumar Singh, Upendra Singh, Vijay Singh, Sanjay Prasad Singh, Rajmani Singh, Ayodhya Prasad Singh and Ramadhar Singh have preferred the present appeals.

(2.) As per the case of the prosecution, an FIR was lodged at Paatan Police Station by the first informant - Rajeev Ranjan Tiwari on 26.11.1989 alleging inter alia that on the eve of general election, he was working as a worker of Bhartiya Janta Party at village Golhana Booth No. 132 under Paatan Police Station and was issuing slips to the voters towards two hundred yards north away from the polling booth; at that time, at around 10:40 a.m., the accused persons who belong to another village Naudiha came armed with lathis, sticks, country made pistols and asked him to stop issuing voter slips and handover the voters list which he was possessing and on his refusal the accused persons started physically beating him (PW8 - Rajiv Ranjan Tiwari) with hands, fists, lathis and sticks; the brother of the first informant-PW8, Priya Ranjan Tiwari (PW10) upon knowing about the incident came to rescue him and at that time accused Dinanath Singh @ Dina Singh fired gun shot at PW10 with his country made pistol, due to which he received pellet injuries. Accused Ajay Singh fired at Dinesh Tiwari (PW12), due to which he was injured. It was further alleged that due to scuffle, accused Hira Singh snatched wrist watches of PW8 and PW10; the villagers rushed there and then all the accused persons ran away towards village Naudhia. Based on the statement of PW8 - Rajiv Ranjan Tiwari, which was recorded at 12:30 p.m. on 26.11.1989, an FIR was registered at about 2:00 p.m. on the very day, i.e., 26.11.1989 against 16 accused named persons for the offences under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 326, 324, 323 I PC and Section 27 of the Arms Act. At this stage, it is required to be noted that even some of the accused - Lakshman Singh, Shiv Kumar Singh and Ayodhya Prasad Singh also sustained injuries. After conclusion of the investigation, the investigating officer filed chargesheet against 15 accused including the appellants herein.

(3.) Shri Manoj Swarup, learned Senior Advocate has appeared on behalf of the appellants - accused and Shri Arunabh Chowdhury, learned Additional Advocate General in Criminal Appeal No. 606/2021 and Shri Tapesh Kumar Singh, learned Advocate in Criminal Appeal Nos. 630-631/2021 have appeared for the State of Jharkhand.