RAM PRASAD Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The four appellants in this appeal by special leave are Ram Prasad alias Dhaudhar. Harbans, Mahabir and Kalwa. All have been convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Penal Code and each has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life under this count. All of them have also been convicted under Section 323 read with Section 24 of the Penal Code and a concurrent sentence of one year's rigorous imprisonment has been awarded to each of them for the said conviction .In substance only two points were urged in support of this appeal by the appellant's counsel and they are as follows:

(2.) The appellants and the members of the prosecution party namely Ram Chandra, the deceased, son Karori, P.W. 1 and his brother Baljit, P.W. 15 are agnatic relations. There was bad blood and enmity inter se between them. On the 7th of October, 1966 at about 10.30 A. M, in the village where the parties reside, the appellants wanted to forcibly stack their bundles of Bajra in front of the enclosure (gher) of Ram Chandra where he had a hut. Ram Chandra asked the appellants not to do so stating that the land where they wanted to stack their bundles of Bajra belonged to them (him ) Appellants Ram Prasad and Mahabir were armed with lathis. They assaulted Ram Chandra with Lathis. Appellants Harbans and Kalwa assaulted him with kicks and fits. When P. W. 15 tried to intervene, he was also assaulted with lathis by the two appellants Ram Prasad and Mahabir and with kicks and fits by the other two. As a result of the injury , Ram Chandra died the same day late in the evening .

(3.) The Doctor who held the autopsy over the dead body of Ram Chandra found two lacerated wounds skull deep-one at the midline of the 'head and the other on the left side. On internal examination he found both the parietal and temporal bones fractured and the membranes lacerated. The Doctor opined that the two injuries were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause the death of Ram Chandra. The third injury found on his person was an abraded contusion over the left side 'buttock upper part. The same Doctor had medically examined Baljit, P.W.15 and had found six simple injuries on his person in the shape of contusions or abrasions.