DASHRATH ALIAS CHAMPA Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur upholding the conviction of the appellants for offence punishable under Section 304 Part I read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC') and the award of sentence of 7 years rigorous imprisonment as awarded by the trial Court.

(2.) Prosecution version in a nutshell is as follows:

(3.) The three accused persons were tried. Seven witnesses were examined as eye-witnesses to further the prosecution version. They included the mother (PW-1) and grand mother (PW-22) of the deceased. The other five eye-witnesses produced were Laxmi Bai (PW-2), Asgari Begam (PW-4) and neighbours of the deceased and Santosh Singh (PW-17), Rakesh (PW-18) and Bittu (PW-19). But none of the witnesses admitted to having seen the incident. Therefore, the prosecution with the permission of the Court cross examined them. The trial Court was of the view that these witnesses were deliberately making false statements and concealing the truth. But the First Information Report (Ex.P10) was recorded by the Head Constable Santosh Kumar (PW-20) on the information given by the deceased. The said Head Constable had also recorded the statement of the deceased under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the 'Cr.P.C.'). His statement is marked as Ex.P.32. Learned Additional Sessions Judge treated both the statements to be statements under Section 32(1) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (in short the 'Evidence Act'). Relying on those statements and the medical evidence, the trial Court found that Ramesh had died as a result of the injuries inflicted upon him by the accused persons. But since none of the injuries was found on the vital organs of the deceased it was held that the offence committed was covered under Section 304 Part I IPC. The accused persons challenged correctness of the judgment before the High Court by filing an appeal which was dismissed by the impugned order.