RAMANAND YADAV Vs. PRABHU NATH JHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these six appeals challenge is to the judgment of the Patna High Court which directed acquittal of 8 persons upsetting conviction recorded and sentence imposed by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Darbhanga. Three of them namely, Prabhu Nath Jha, Laxmi Yadav and Badri Yadav were found guilty of offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC') while five others namely, Ramashish Yadav, Yadu Nath Yadav, Ram Chandra Yadav, Bhutkun Yadav and Ram Prakash Yadav were found guilty of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC. Three of the accused persons namely Prabhu Nath Jha, Ramashish Yadav and Yadu Nath Yadav were also found guilty of the offence punishable under Sections 25A and 27 of the Arms Act, 1959 (in short the 'Arms Act') and two of them namely Laxmi Yadav and Badri Yadav were found guilty of offence under Section 3 of the Explosive Substance Act, 1908 (in short 'Explosive Act'). Life sentence was imposed by offences relatable to Section 302 or Section 302 read with Section 149. Custodial sentence of various magnitudes were imposed for other offences. Since Prabhu Nath was absconding, his trial was separated initially but finally the trial Judge tried the Sessions trial of all the accused persons together.

(2.) Accusations which led to the trial of the accused persons and the prosecution version as unfolded during trial are as follows :

(3.) According to the prosecution case all the eight accused belong to one camp led by the accused Prabhu Nadh Jha and all the eight accused were sympathizers of a particular political party. After this occurrence all the eight accused persons ran away towards the house of Prabhu Nath Jha, and the informant Ramanand Yadav (PW-12) went to the house of Prabhu Nath Jha and found that all these accused were running away towards north.