JODHAN Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal calls in question the defensibility and the legal sustainability of the Judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Bench at Gwalior in Criminal Appeal No. 214 of 1995 whereby the High Court has dislodged the Judgment of acquittal recorded by the learned Additional Sessions Judge in respect of all the accused persons including the present appellant for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Sections 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 148 IPC and proceeded to sentence each of the accused under Section 302 read with Section 149 of IPC and imposed rigorous imprisonment for life along with separate sentences for other offences with the stipulation that all the sentences would be concurrent. Be it noted, the appellant and one Mangal Singh were also tried under Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.

(2.) The facts which are essential to be exposited for the disposal of this appeal are that on 7.1.1984 about 9.00 a.m. when Ratta, PW-7, was at his home, the accused persons, namely, Mangal Singh, Babbu, Jodhan, Kanchhedi, Bhinua, Ramswaroop and Natthu and others came there armed with lathis, farsa and handmade bombs and started abusing Ratta and his family members and exhorted that they would not leave the Kumharwalas alive. As alleged, Kanchhedi assaulted Rukmanibai on her left hand with farsa, Jodhan, the present appellant, caused injury in the right leg of Heeralal, PW-16, by throwing a handmade bomb at him and accused Mangal Singh threw a handmade bomb on the chest of Siriya alias Shriram as a result of which he received serious injuries. Other accused persons used lathi in the incident. As the prosecution story proceeds, Ratta lodged an FIR, Ex. P/24, on 7.1.1984 about 12.15 p.m. and by that time Siriya @ Shriram had already succumbed to the injuries. The injured persons were medically examined and on requisition by the investigating agency postmortem was carried out. The investigating agency in the course of investigation prepared the spot map, collected the bloodstained soil from the place of incident, and further, as is demonstrable, on being led by the accused persons seized the weapons, namely, lathi, farsa and handmade bombs and, thereafter, sent the seized articles to the chemical examiner for analysis. The investigating officer recorded the statements of the witnesses and eventually placed the chargesheet in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Vidisha, who, in turn, committed the matter to the Court of Session, Vidisha.

(3.) The learned trial Judge framed charges under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Sections 149 and 148 of IPC against all the accused persons and an additional charge under Section 324 IPC against the accused Kanchhedi and under Sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substances Act against Jodhan and Mangal Singh.