RANBHIR Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this appeal under Section 374(2) of the Cr.P.C. accused/ appellants namely Randhir, Devdas, Roop Singh and Rajesh have questioned the legality of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 28-8-1999 passed by the learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur in Sessions Trial No. 416/ 94 whereby learned Additional Sessions Judge after holding each of the accused/appellants guilty for commission of offence under Sections 396 and 324 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C., sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, in default of payment of fine to further undergo R.I. for one year each, and to undergo R.I. for 3 years respectively. It was further directed that both the sentences shall run concurrently. The accused/appellants are in detention since 1-7-1994 thereby they are in detention round about more than 11 years 6 months.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, as per the Dehati Nalishi (Ex-P/19) lodged by Kishorilal PW.-22 in the police station Abhanpur, in brief, necessary for the disposal of this appeal is that in the intervening night of 13th/14th June 1994 Kisorilal (PW-22) and his family members after taking dinner at about 10 p.m. went for sleep. He was sleeping in the central room, the doors of which were open. His wife Swarnarani (since deceased) and his younger son Raviraja aged about 9 years were sleeping on a cot near the front door. In front hall room his elder son Mahendra Singh @ Viki (since deceased) was sleeping on a cot. In last room his daughters namely Rani, second daughter Rakhi @ Switi (since deceased) and their daughter Shweta were sleeping. At about 1 a.m. when the light went off on account of failure of electricity supply, somebody assaulted on his head with an iron rod, as a result of which he fell down on the ground and became unconscious. When he regained consciousness at about 2.15 a.m., he saw that 3 persons were standing in his room, each of them having torch, they were taking out ornaments and other goods from the Almirah. They were talking in their language which he was not able to understand. They were searching articles after lighting the torch. They were wearing lower under garments (Chaddi) and upper under garments (Baniyan). Two persons were of 5 ft. height and third person was 4-1/2 ft. in height. At about 2.50 a.m. the electric light was restored, therefore, one person covered his face with a Chaddar which was lying on the cot and 3 persons had taken the articles, went in the corridor after closing the door. He after bolting the door from inside started raising cries "save save". Other 2-3 persons were standing outside. After opening the door, he went to the room where Vikki was sleeping, went outside and started raising cries on which his younger son Raviraja came near him. There was injury on the head of Vikki, blood was oozing out of it. He was unconscious. Thereafter, he went to the mother of Vikki. There was injury on her dead, blood was oozing out of it. She was dead. He also went to the room of his daughters and saw that there was injury on the head of Rani, she was unconscious. There was injury on the head of Switi, blood was oozing out of it. She was dead. There was injury on the head of Shweta, blood was oozing out of it, she was unconscious. Hearing the cries, Tulsi Panwala, neighbours Ratan Lal and hotelier came on the scene. They were apprised by him about the incident. They brought Drs. Kukreja and Tiwari. Both the doctors after checking all the persons advised them to go to D.K. Hospital, Raipur for treatment. One iron spring plate stained with blood was lying on the dining table which was used as a weapon of offence for the purpose of assaulting.

(3.) The accused persons took away the currency notes of Rs. 70,000/-, golden ornaments weighing 20 Tolas and silver ornaments weighing 10 Tolas. Based on this Dehati Nalishi the Officer in-Charge Police Station Mr. Jagdish Prasad registered F.I.R. (Ex.-P/20). Injured Kishorilal and Raviraja were sent for medical examination to the Government Hospital, Raipur where after examination, injury report Ex. P/4 of Raviraja was prepared and injury report Ex. P/29 of Kishorilal was prepared. After examination, injury reports Ex. P/30 and P/31 of Shweta and Rani were prepared respectively. Switi, Swarnalata and Mahendra Singh succumbed to the injuries. The Investigating Officer after giving notice to the Panchas prepared Panchanamas Ex. P/12, Ex. P14 and Ex. P16 of the dead bodies of Mahendra, Swarnalata and Switi respectively. The dead bodies were sent for post-mortem examination where Dr. Arvind Nevalwar (PW-8) conducted postmortem on the dead bodies of Switi, Swarnalata and Mahendra, and prepared Post-mortem reports Ex. P/8, Ex. P/9 and Ex. P/10 respectively. Patwari T.R. Phunte (PW-7) prepared the site plan Ex.P/7. Investigating Officer S.R. Yuvane (PW-25) took into possession iron spring plate, lock, country made pistol, liquor bottle, iron rod, blood stained clothes and blood stains from the place of occurrence under Ex. P/ 19-A. Sub Inspector Kadir Khan (PW-17) on the information of head constable Ram Nath prepared merg intimation (Ex. P23) of Switi, Ex.P-24 of Swarnalata and Ex. P/25 of Mahendra Gulati. The clothes of the deceased persons were taken into possession by Raghunath Prasad (PW-18) under Ex. P25-A. The blood stained articles were sent under Ex. P/26 for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Raipur.