NAVGANBHAI SOMABHAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Thirteen accused convicted by the High Court preferred a special leave petition. This Court granted leave only in respect of Original Accused Nos. 4, 9, 12 and 13 i.e. Petitioners Nos. 10, 11, 12 and 13 and dismissed the same in respect of others. Those four petitioners (Nos 10, 11, 12 and 13) are the appellants in this appeal before us. An incident took place on 3-6-1979 at about 11.30 a.m. at village Matoda, Ahmedabad District, during the course of which one Cheha Mana, the deceased in the case, was killed and two other persons who figured as P.Ws. 1 and 4 received a number of injuries on vital parts. In relation to this incident, 14 accused were challaned and tried for offences punishable u/ Ss. 147, 148, 302 read with Ss. 149,324 and Section 323 read with Section 149, I.P.C. The Trial Court acquitted A-4, A-9, A-12, A-13 and A-14 and convicted the remaining accused u/S.326 read with S.149, I.P,C. and also under Ss. 324 and 326 I.P.C. U/S. 326, I.P.C. the convicted accused were sentenced to two years' R.I. and in respect of other offences they were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The convicted accused preferred an appeal and the State also preferred an appeal against the acquittal of all the fourteen accused in respect of the murder charge. The High Court confirmed the acquittal of A-14 and set aside the acquittal of A-4, A-9, A-12 and A-13 and allowed the State appeal and convicted all the remaining 13 accused under Section 304. Part I, I. P.C. read with Section 149, I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to undergo four years' RI. All of them, as mentioned above, preferred the special leave petition but we are left with only these four appellants, as stated above.

(2.) The prosecution case is as follows: The accused are all inter-related They as well as the deceased and the material witnesses belong to the same village. One day prior to the date of the incident. Ajmal (A-1) scolded Raman (P.W. 1) who had gone for watering his cattle and gave slap to him as he did not remove his cattle. Next day at about 10-00 a.m. again P.W. I had gone for watering his cattle and at the same time, A-1 had also gone for watering his cattle and was returning home after his cattle had drunk water. At that juncture, A-1, A-2 and some others surrounded Raman (P.W. 1) and A-I gave a dharia blow on his head and when P.W. 1 shouted, his brother and the deceased came there. P. W. 4 also came there and some others gathered there. The deceased snatched away the dharia from the hand of A-l and threw it away but that hurt A-I and his brother. Thereafter, the accused went to their respective houses and 10-15 minutes later when P.W. 1, the deceased and P.W. 4 were sitting outside their house, all the fourteen accused armed with spear, dharia and sticks came uttering words and on seeing them, the deceased, P. Ws. I and 4 concealed themselves in the house of their uncle Chhela Vala. The uncle tried to persuade the accused persons but they did not agree. Some of them climbed the roof of the house of Chhela Vala and made a big hole in the roof and gave the blows with dharia, spear and sticks on the deceased as well as on P.Ws. 1 and 4. One of the persons cried that the deceased had expired. Some of the accused who were outside broke open the door and went inside and gave the blows with sticks and spear to the deceased and P.Ws. 1 and 4. During the occurrence, the accused were also throwing stones on the deceased and P.Ws. I and 4. After committing the offence, the accused left the scene of occurrence. A report was given to the police and they arrived and sent the injured persons in a jeep and they were transferred to the civil hospital at Ahmedabad later. The dead body was lying there which was sent for post-mortem and the doctor (P.W. 3) who conducted the post-mortem found as many as 32 injuries on the deceased and on internal examination he found a fracture of the right side frontal and temporal bones and comminuted fractures at the base of the skull of right temporal and frontal bones. The sternum was also fractured at the level of third intercostal space and the doctor opined that the deceased died due to these injuries which were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death. The doctor who examined P.W. 1 found on him three injuries on the chest, middle finger and thigh. On P.W. 4, the doctor found four incised injuries and one lacerated wound over the temporal region, parietal region, right hand and on the tibia. The accused were arrested and after the completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was laid. The prosecution mainly relied on the evidence of two injured witnesses and the accused pleaded not guilty.

(3.) The Trial Court acquitted Original Accused Nos. 4, 9, 12 and 13 (the appellants before us) on the ground that the two injured witnesses have made some improvements regarding the motive aspect as well as overt acts attributed to them. The learned Trial Judge testing their version regarding the overt acts in the light of the medical evidence and also having considered some of the omissions as well as improvements acquitted them. So far as A-14 is concerned, these two injured witnesses deposed that he dealt a blow with an axe and the doctor's evidence ruled out that axe was being used and in that view of the matter he was also acquitted.