RAMA DEVI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment decides two sets of appeals, one by the State of Bihar, through the Central Bureau of Investigation [For short, "CBI."], and the other by Rama Devi, wife of one of the deceased - Brij Bihari Prasad, a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The second deceased - Lakshmeshwar Sahu - was the bodyguard of Brij Bihari Prasad and a member of the Bihar police.

(2.) The impugned judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Patna dtd. 24/7/2014 reverses the judgment of the trial court and acquits the nine accused [Suraj Bhan Singh @ Suraj Singh @ Suraj, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Mantu Tiwari, Captain Sunil Singh (since deceased), Ram Niranjan Chaudhary, Shashi Kumar Rai (since deceased), Vijay Kumar Shukla @ Munna Shukla, Rajan Tiwari.] of the charges punishable under Ss. 302, 307, 333, 355 and 379, all read with Sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 [For short, "IPC"], and Sec. 27 of the Arms Act, 1959. [For short, "1959 Act"]

(3.) The incident in question took place on 13/6/1998 at around 08:15 p.m. at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science, Patna. [For short, "IGIMS Hospital"] On the basis of the fardbeyan (Exhibit 50) of Amarendra Kumar Sinha (PW-10) recorded by S.S.P. Yadav, Inspector-cum-Officer-in-Charge, Shastri Nagar Police Station [S.S.P. Yadav subsequently expired and did not depose], on 13/6/1998 at 9:00 p.m., First Information Report [For short, "FIR"] No. 336/1998, (Exhibit 51 and 51/1) was lodged under Ss. 302, 307, 34, 120B, 379 of the IPC and Sec. 27 of the 1959 Act at 12:15 a.m. on 14/6/1998.