S P SINHA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) - There are four appellants before us. They along with 118 others were tried for offences punishable u/ Ss. 147, 148, 302 read with S. 149, 452, 427, 337, IPC. The trial court convicted 37 of them and acquitted the rest. All of them preferred an appeal to the High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court in a very lengthy judgment having discussed the evidence of the eye-witnesses elaborately, confirmed the convictions and sentences of 8 of them and acquitted the rest. An appeal filed by the State was dismissed by the High Court. Out of the 8 convicted accused Jag Mohan (A-45), Pancham (A-77), S. P. Sinha (A-110) and Suraj Pal (A-115) have preferred this appeal. The prosecution case is as follows:

(2.) The prosecution mainly relied upon the evidence of 5 witnesses. After screening through the evidence the learned Sessions Judge convicted 37 accused but as stated above the High Court upheld the conviction of only 8 out of which 4 are before us as appellants. We have gone through the voluminous judgment of the High Court carefully. The High Court after discussing the evidence of each of the witnesses formulated certain principles based on the ratio laid down in Masalti v. State of U.P., (1964) 8 SCR 133: (AIR 1965 SC 202). Before doing so the High Court also noticed that most of the witnesses are highly interested and partisan. The High Court also rejected the pleas of the defence that there was a free fight. Regarding the scope of S. 149 and its applicability the High Court at one stage observed thus:

(3.) Having set out this principle the High Court on the basis of the identification and mention being made by two or more witnesses, thought fit or safe to convict the 8 accused. So far as the common object of the unlawful assembly was concerned the High Court relied upon the evidence of the witnesses who stated that the crowd was raising slogans 'Mardalo Pawar ko' and on the basis of the injuries found on the dead body held that common object was to commit the murder of the deceased. Therefore, the High Court ultimately concluded that the 8 accused who were convicted were members of the unlawful assembly and therefore liable under S.302 read with S. 149, I.P.C.