NIRANJAN PRASAD Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 26 persons including the 10 appellants were arraigned before the Sessions Judge, Jabalpore for rioting, two murders and other allied offences. The trial ended in an acquittal of all of them; and aggrieved thereby the respondent-State of Madhya Pradesh filed an application seeking leave to appeal under Section 378, Cr. P.C. The High Court, however, granted leave only against the 10 appellants(the respondents therein). After hearing the parites the High Court allowed the appeal, set aside the acquittal of the 10 appellants and convicted and sentenced each of them for offences punishable under Sections 148, 325/149, 302/149 (one count), I.P.C. Aggrieved thereby the appellants have filed the present appeal under Section 379, Cr. P.C.

(2.) Briefly stated the prosecution case is:on July 2, 1981 at or about 10 a.m. when Gajadhar (P.W.3) along with his sons Bhagwat and Lakhanlal and wife Kusumbai were cultivating their land, which is at a short distance from their village, the accused persons came there variously armed. While the appellants Niramjan Prasad and Narayan Prasad (since dead) had rifles with them the other appellants were carrying weapons like lathis, spears and pharasas. Seeing the accused persons coming in a riotous mood Gajadhar and his family members tried to flee towards their village but could not succeed as on the way the miscreants caught them up on the road near the house of Khoobchand(P.W.4) and some of them started beating Gajadhar with the weapons in their hands. When his son Lakhanalal came to his rescue the appellant Sitaram assaulted him on his head with a ballam (spear) while some of the other appellants assaulted him with iron rods. Khoobchand then came to their rescue only to be assaulted by some of them. It is the further prosecution case that when they found Santkumar, another son of Gajadhar coming towards the road the appellants Narayan Singh and Niranjan Singh fired at him. Then the miscreants fled away. An information about the incident was given by one Rametibai at the Sihora police station immediately thereafter which was entered in the station diary. After making that entry ASI Dayaram Dube (P.W. 27) went to the place of occurrence and first recorded the statement of Khoobchand which was treated as F.I.R. He then sent the four injured to the Hospital where Santkumar and Lakhanlal succumbed to the injuries in that very night. On completion of investigation P.W. 27 submitted charge-sheet.

(3.) To prove its case the prosecution relied principally upon the ocular version of the incident as given out by the Gajadhar (P.W.3) Khoobchand (P.W.4), Raj Kumari Bai (P.W.5), wife of Gajadhar and a dying declaration made by Santkumar.