BACHAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) These appeals by special leave arise out of the following facts :

(3.) On the morning of 3rd December 1975, one Shekhar Singh, resident of Village Moory was assaulted by some of the accused. Later on information was conveyed to Bhagwati Devi that her sons-in-law, Lakshman Singh and Bacha Singh and her son Nathuni Singh had been surrounded by the accused in the Khalihan of one Marua Singh with a view to commit their murder. Bhagwati Devi, accompanied by her daughter and son, went to the Khalihan of Marua Singh and when she reached there, she saw the accused persons, 13 in all, armed with guns, spears, pharsas and lathis etc. standing on the road outside the Khalihan whereas her two sons-in-law and her son were inside. She also heard accused Chirkut Singh asking them to come out of the Khalihan and he also opened fire hitting Bacha Singh on which, he fell down. Lakshman Singh thereafter opened fire with a country-made gun in self defence hitting Kishore Singh, as a result of which, he too fell down on the ground. Thereaf ter, accused Jang Bahadur Singh fired a shot with his weapon hitting Lakshman Singh, and accused Bashishta Singh also fired his weapon hitting Nathuni Singh and they both fell on the ground. The other accused thereafter gave blows with lathis to Nathuni Singh. In the meanwhile Sachmucha Devi, the fathers sister of Nathuni Singh covered his body with her own and received gun butt/lathi blows given alleg edly by accused Jang Bahadur Singh. It further appears that the accused persons started dragging Lakshman Singh and Bacha Singh in a southernly direction and also assaulted them which resulted in their deaths on the spot. On hearing the alarm raised by Bhagwati Devi, her co-villagers namely Bajranghi Singh and Chariter Singh reached the place and also witnessed the incident. The accused then ran away carrying Nand Kishore Singh with them. Bhagwati Devi then rushed to the Police Station, Chainpur on which an FIR was registered for offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 149,302,307 and 325 of IPC and under Section 25(a) of the Arms Act against all the thirteen accused and on completion of the investigation, they were charged under the aforesaid offences and as they pleaded innocence, they were brought to trial. The trial court relying on the statements of PW5 Bhagwati Devi, PW4 Jai Prakash, PW6 Binda Devi, PW7 Sachmucha Devi and PW8 Nathuni Singh held that the case stood proved against nine of the thirteen accused and accordingly convicted them as under :-