RAMHU Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Accused/appellants Ramhu, Ramhau, Ramadhar, Narayan and Sukhchain, have preferred this criminal appeal under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 being aggrieved by the judgment of conviction and sentence dated 30/1/1998, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, district Rajnandgaon in Sessions Trial No. 95 of 1998 whereby the learned Additional Sessions Judge after holding the accused/appellants guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302, 201, 323 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code convicted and sentenced each of them to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and to undergo rigorous imprisonment of one year, respectively. The sentences were ordered to run con-currently.

(2.) Factual scenario giving rise to the present appeal is as follows: The villagers of village Bandhanwangaon set up idol of Durga and they were celebtrating Durga festival and were also singing the songs. On third day of the setting up of Durga idol when the villagers were singings songs, there was an impression that the God had appeared in some per-sons and they were saying that for this act Ramadhin and Sukhchain are res-ponsible. As such Ramadhin and Sukh-chain were called at the place and in the night villagers assaulted them. In the morning of 7-10-1997 at about 10.00 Ramadhin was called by the accused persons at the house of Sukhchain. Accused/appellants 1 to 4 are brothers of Ramadhin and accused/appellant No. 5 is the father of Ramadhin. The accused/appellants started beating Ramadhin saying that on account of his witchcraft activities the villagers have unnecessarily blamed them and he was responsible for the whole episode. Thereafter Gendkunwar (since deceased), wife of Ramadhin, was also called there and was also beaten with the cane of tamarind tree. As a result of beating Gendkunwar received injuries on her chest, stomach, head and legs and little finger of her left hand was also broken. She succumbed to the injuries on 10-10-1997 at about 5.00 P.M. Further case of the prosecution is that all the accused persons threatened Ramadhin not to report the matter to the Police. Ramadhin was not in a position even to move on account of the injuries sustai-ned by him. On the same day dead body of Gendkunwar was cremated and last rites were also performed. However, on 4-11-1997 Ramadhin, husband of the deceased, reported the matter to the Police upon which the Police registered Crime No. 17 of 1997 (Ex. P/i).

(3.) The Police after completing the investigation filed the charge-sheet against the accused/appellants in the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khairagarh who in turn committed the case to the Sessions Court Rajnanda-gaon from where the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh received the case on transfer.