SAHDEO Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eleven accused were tried by the Court of sessions, Muzaffarnagar, for offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 395, 397, 452 and 302 read with Section 149 IPC. There were also charges against some of the accused under Sections 25 and 27 of Arms Act. After the trial, the sessions Judge convicted five accused for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC. They were also convicted under Sections 148 and 452 IPC and under Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. Six accused were acquitted by the Sessions Court. The five accused, who were found guilty, were sentenced to death by the Sessions Court. These accused filed an appeal before the High Court of Allahabad and the State also filed an appeal against the acquittal of the other five accused. The appeal preferred by the convicted accused was dismissed. However, the State appeal filed against the acquittal of the five accused persons was partly allowed and appellant Satyendra was found guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 and he was also sentenced to death by the High Court. As regards the other five accused who were convicted by the Sessions Court, their sentence of death was confirmed by the High Court.

(2.) The incident, which has given rise to the present appeals, happened on 12-1-2000 at about 5 p.m. on the outskirts of village Bahadurpur. PW-1 Brijesh Kumar and PW-2 Raj Bahadur along with one Anil Kumar and eight deceased persons had, on the fateful day, gone to attend a case at the sessions Court at Muzaffarnagar. That sessions case was in respect of the death of one Anand Pal, who was murdered on 5-3-1999. Deceased Padam Singh, Raj Pal Singh and Sonu were accused in that case. After the sessions case was over, all the now-deceased eight persons, PW-1 and PW-2, and Anil Kumar boarded a bus to reach their village at Bahadurpur. When the bus reached near the village Bahadurpur, two Maruti cars and a motorcycle came from behind and stopped in front of the bus to intercept the same. The bus was stopped and all the twelve accused entered the bus. Dharmendra alias Bittu and Subhash were armed with rifles. Sahdeo, Chandraveer and Satyapal were armed with guns. Satyendra and Parvinder were armed with revolvers. As soon as these accused entered the bus, they started firing as a result of which Padam Singh, Jaiveer Singh, Ashok, Paran Pal and Sonu died on the spot. PW-1 Brijesh Kumar; PW-2 Raj Bahadur; Rakesh and Prem managed to get down from the bus and they ran for their lives. The accused chased the deceased Rakesh and Prem to the house of Hukum Singh and fired at them. Both Rakesh and Prem died at the house of Hukum Singh. PW-1 and PW-2 hid themselves and managed to escape. Deceased Prem was shot at when he was on the verandah of Hukum Singhs house whereas Rakesh was inside a room of that house and the door of that room was broke open and he was killed. The prosecution had alleged that the accused persons looted the house of Hukum Singh and some gold and silver ornaments, silver coins and a double barrel gun were taken away from that house. The accused persons are the sons, grandsons and great grandsons of one Data Ram and the deceased persons are the children and grand children of Lila Pant. Lila Pant and Data Ram were the children of one Ganga Sahai. It appears that there was a long standing enmity between these two groups of persons, though they are the lineal descendents of one common ancestor.

(3.) Based on the information furnished by PW-1, the Station House Officer of Sikhera Police Station recorded the F. I. statement at 7.15 p.m. on 12-1-2000. Names of all the twelve accused persons were mentioned in the F.I. statement. PW-4 Vinod Kumar Tewatia took over the investigation. He visited the place of incident and took necessary photographs. On 12-1-2000 he seized the empty cartridges and two bullets from the bus. From the house of Hukum Singh, one live cartridge of 315 bore and one empty cartridge of 12 bore were also recovered. The inquest over the dead bodies was held by Sub Inspector of Police, S. P. Tyagi. The bodies were later sent for post-mortem examination. PW-3, Dr. V. C. Gupta conducted the post mortem examination. There were series of gun shot injuries on the bodies of the deceased persons. Accused Satyendra surrendered before the Court and he was remanded to custody. Based on his information, one country-made pistol and a Hero Honda motor-cycle were recovered from a sugarcane field. The other accused were also arrested and based on the statement of these accused persons, certain weapons of offence were recovered. One of the cars allegedly used by the accused was also recovered.