CHATUR Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal arises out of judgment and order dated 11.1.1999 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Mungeli, District Bilaspur in Sessions Trial No. 261/1996 convicting the accused/appellants under Sections 148, 302/149 and 325/149 IPC and sentencing each of them to undergo Rl for one year u/s 148, imprisonment for life with fine of Rs. 500/ - u/s 302/149 and Rl for two years with fine of Rs. 500/ - u/s 325/149 IPC.

(2.) NAME of the deceased in the present case is Sukhmat Bai. According to the case of the prosecution, on 21.03.1996 at about 9.30 am FIR (Ex. P -1) was lodged by Rekhram (PW -1) alleging that on that day at about 6 am his wife Sukhmat Bai, son Nohar and granddaughter Purnima had left for the field to keep watch on the gram crop standing thereoh and at about 8 am while he was going to the filed for grazing cattle, he saw that accused Lakhan and Rajaram were assaulting his wife and son with Tabbal, accused Rajju with axe (Tangia) and accused Chatur, Lallu, Suresh, Mahesh, Vrindavan, Anant, Komal, Bechan, Begram, Purshottam, Deu, Shalig and Dhanesh with club. While assaulting Shukmat Bai and Nohar, the accused persons were also exhorting to eliminate them. On seeing all this, he started crying and then his grand -daughter Purnima went away towards the locality. Thereafter, the assailant party also came to the locality and on hearing the commotion, Agnu (PW -2), Shatrughan (PW -4) and Johan (PW -5) also came there. It is alleged that a year prior to the incident the complainant party had some dispute with Haldhar - the brother of accused Bechan and after the Panchayat meeting, the assailant party had socially boycotted them. Allegedly, on 20.3.1996 i.e. a day prior to the date of incident he was informed by one Sadwa Nau that accused Lakhan had asked him not to cut the hair of his community. It is alleged that on that day the accused persons had assaulted his wife and son with an intention to commit their murder. In the FIR he has also described the injuries sustained by Sukhmat Bai and Nohar. Based on this FIR, offences under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 307 IPC were registered against 16 persons. On 27.3.1996 in the hospital Sukhmat Bai succumbed to the injuries sustained by her. Postmortem examination on the body of deceased was conducted on 28.3.1996 by Dr. S. Chatterjee (PW -14) who gave his report Ex. P -18 opining the cause of death as head injury leading to coma. After investigation, charge -sheet was filed for the offences under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307 and 302 IPC followed by framing of charge.

(3.) IN order to establish the guilt of the accused/appellants the prosecution has examined 18 witnesses. Statements of the accused/appellants were also recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which they denied the charges levelled against them and pleaded their innocence and false implication in the case. This apart, Jagannath Kewat (DW -1), Chatur Prasad (DW -2), Ramjhul (DW -3), Swarathlal (DW -4), Dharamdas (DW -5), Ramdhun (DW -6), Chetram (DW -7) and Darab (DW -8) have also been examined by the defence in support of its case.