BHUSHAN TANDAN Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal filed by the appellants-accused under Sec. 374(2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 26/6/2012, passed by the Court of learned 1 st Addl. Sessions Judge, Baloda Bazar, District Baloda Bazar-Bhatapara (C.G.) in S.T. No.67/2011 (State of CG vs. Bhushan Tandan and others), whereby they have been convicted for offence under Sec. 302/34 of IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment with fine of Rs.500.00 and, in default of payment of fine, additional rigorous imprisonment for 03 months.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 22/8/2009, at about 12:00 PM, at Village Rawan, the accused-appellants, in furtherance of their common object, assaulted deceased- Mansharam by means of 'lathi/danda', due to which he suffered injuries and died on 27/8/2009 and, thereby, committed the offence under Sec. 302/34 of IPC.

(3.) The further case of the prosecution, in nutshell, is that: Santlal (PW-01) was truck driver of truck bearing No.CG-04-6608 of Durga Courier Company and, in said truck, Mansharam (deceased), father-in-law of Santlal (PW-01), was working as Assistant; on the fateful day, i.e. on 22/8/2009, Santlal (PW- 01) and Mansharam (deceased) after loading cement in the truck, started their journey towards Ambuja Cement Factory, Rawan; in the way, Santlal (PW-01) stopped/parked the truck in front of liquor shop and after instructing Mansharam (deceased) to take care of the truck went to his Village Bijadehi; while Mansharam (deceased) was in the truck, in the night at about 12:00 PM, accused-appellants came over their and they ensued a dispute with Mansharam (deceased) on account of some previous enmity and, in furtherance thereof, assaulted Mansharam (deceased) by means of 'lathi/danda', due to which Mansharam (deceased) sustained injuries on his back, head and neck; thereafter, on 23/8/2009, Mansharam (deceased) went to his Village Dotopar and informed about the said incident to his brother- Chhattar Singh (PW-07), his wife- Dayamati and other villagers and, thereafter, went to Police Station Baloda-Bazar to lodged report; the said incident was witnessed by nearby peoples of liquor shop; on the report so lodged by Mansharam, the police registered FIR (Ex.P/13) and sent Mansharam (deceased) for medical examination, and in the MLC report (Ex.P/10), Dr. K.S. Bajpeyi (PW-05) opined that four contusions were found on the body of Mansharam (deceased), which injuries are simple in nature; thereafter, on 27/8/2009, Mansharam died and pursuant to which marg intimation was recorded; the dead-body of deceased- Mansharam was sent for postmortem examination and in the postmortem examination report (Ex.P/10), conducted by Dr. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (PW-09), it was opined that the cause of death of deceased- Mansharam is due to asphyxia caused by pulmonary embolism, may be due to previous muscle injury; thereafter, appellants-accused were arrested vide Ex.P/07 to 09 and their memorandum statements were recorded vide Ex.P/01 to 03, pursuant to which 'lathis/dandas' have been seized vide Ex.P/04 to 06, but the aforesaid seized 'lathis' were not subjected to FSL examination for the reason best known to the prosecution; further, the aforesaid seized 'lathis', were sent for query to an expert, whereby vide query report (Ex.P/11) it has been opined that the injuries sustained to Mansharam (deceased) can be caused by said 'lathis'. Thereafter, statement of witnesses were recorded and, after due investigation, the police filed charge-sheet in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Baloda Bazar (CG) and, thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. The appellants/accused abjured their guilt and entered into defence by submitting that they are innocent and have been falsely implicated.