BIRBAL CHOUDHARY @ MUKHIYA JEE Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The eleven appellants herein, out of the fifteen persons who faced trial, are variously convicted under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for committing offences punishable under Sections 364A, 34, 395 and 412 of the IPC, hereby call into question the confirmation of their conviction by the High Court by the common impugned judgment and order dated March 30, 2010, which was rendered in a batch of appeals. Ensuing from their conviction on the above-mentioned charges, the appellants and others similarly situated have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 20 years.

(2.) The Sessions Court, finding them guilty of aforesaid offences, had sentenced two appellants, Krishna Bihari Singh @ Krishna Singh and Jawahar Koiry @ Jawahar Singh @ Neta Jee, to suffer death penalty. However, the sentence has been truncated by the High Court on appeal/reference, awarding them the punishment of imprisonment for 20 years. The High Court, having opined that the actions of all the appellants were driven by common intention, the conviction of life imprisonment of the other remaining appellants is also fixed at 20 years.

(3.) The case pertains to the abduction of Ajay Shanker Mishra (PW-17), Manoj Singh (PW-18) and Raju Mishra (PW-20) which the prosecution claims, was committed for extracting ransom. The written report of Arun Kumar Mishra (the informant, examined as PW-5 during trial) and subsequent FIR divulge that the victim PW-17 and the informant (PW-5) were doing the business together, wherein PW-17 was mainly responsible for collecting money dues from their business associates. On November 20, 2006, PW-17 along with informant 's cousin PW-20 and the driver PW-18, left Buxar in a White Maruti Gypsy bearing No. BR 1P 2619, with the purpose of collecting the dues. Having collected a total of Rs. 4 lakhs from their business associates i.e. Sanjay Jaiswal (PW-1), Rajesh Kumar Jaiswal (PW-2), Sandeep Kumar Jaiswal (PW-3), Parwez Hassan Ansari (PW-4) and others, they were proceeding to head back. While they telephonically informed twice, last being at 4:30 PM, they did not return home and the next day was spent searching for the missing victims. The records further disclose that around 6 pm on the next day, the said white Gypsy escorted by a motorcycle and a silver Bolero was seen going towards Jamauli on the Rampur Jamauli Canal road. Additionally, it was also recorded that on the same day i.e. November 21, 2006, at around 8:45 pm, the driver PW-18 contacted the informant PW-5 from Sonbarsa informing him that seven unknown persons had abducted the victims Ajay Shanker Mishra and Raju Mishra, at gunpoint, the previous evening at around 5 pm by overtaking the vehicle with two motorcycles and the driver PW-18 was left at Sonbarsa by the abductors. It was further mentioned in the FIR that the abductors had committed the said crime for the purpose of extracting ransom.