JAGDISH YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted under Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to death. He has filed this appeal against the order of sentence only in view of the limited leave granted by this court.

(2.) What the prosecution has been able to prove is that during the night between first and second of June, 1989, the appellant along with 30 to 40 other deceits committed decoity in the house of deceased Dhaneshwar, that the deceits killed Dhaneshwar, Surendra, Awadhesh, Kharha and Kanhai and also set on fire some of the articles belonging to the family of the deceased. In all 24 accused were put up for trial out of whom 13 were acquitted by the Trial court. The other accused were convicted under Section 396 and out of them only appellant Jagdish was sentenced to death. All others were awarded sentence of life imprisonment. The High court agreed with the findings recorded by the Trial court after re- appreciating the evidence and, dismissed the appeals and accepted the death reference. While confirming the death sentence the High court observed as under:

(3.) It was contended by the learned counsel for the appellant that the High court wrongly proceeded on the basis that as found by the Trial court appellant Jagdish had individually killed two innocent persons. That was not the finding recorded by the Trial court and, therefore, he submitted that confirmation of death sentence by the High court stands vitiated. Learned counsel also submitted that there was really no special circumstance which differentiated the case of the appellant from that of the other accused who have been awarded only life imprisonment. He lastly submitted that this case cannot be regarded as a rarest of rare case and, therefore, the extreme penalty of death deserves to be set aside.