KALANG SAHAY Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against judgment dtd. 24/1/2000 passed in Sessions Trial No.190 of 1998 by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Ambikapur, whereby the accused/Appellants were convicted for having committed an offence punishable under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and for having committed offence punishable under Sec. 148 IPC and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 years, in respect thereof.

(2.) The trial was initiated against six persons, i.e., the present four Appellants and Dirpan and Sirbhanjan. Dirpan and Sirbhanjan have been acquitted of the charges framed against them and hence the present appeal has been preferred by the four Appellants, i.e., Kalang, Pochi, Jainath and Vishwanath challenging their conviction and sentence awarded by the Trial Court.

(3.) The prosecution story, briefly stated, is that on 6/5/1998, PW-3, Jeetram along with Moharsai (deceased), PW-4, Dharmpal, PW-7, Deonarayan and Kailash and Bachansai, who have not been examined by the prosecution, had gone to attend a marriage in Bhandarpara. They were returning after attending the marriage from Bhandarpara. At about 10:30 p.m., the four accused Kalang, Jainath, Vishwanath and Pochi, who are real brothers, were hiding behind a bush (which is known as Besharam Jhad in common parlance) by the side of the road and as soon as the deceased and others reached there, accused Kalang suddenly got-up and using abusive language said kill Moharsai. Accused Jainath raised a cry that kill Jeetram also. Both Jeetram and Moharsai ran in different directions. Jeetram fell into a ditch. He then got up and turned around. He saw that accused Kalang gave a blow on the thigh of Moharsai. Being scared, Jeetram ran away and went towards the village and met his neighbours and after gathering some people from the village returned to the scene of occurrence and found that Moharsai was lying dead next to the Channai river. Thereafter, he, along with some villagers and the Village Kotwar, went to the police station to lodge a report. On the basis of his statement, First Information Report (Ex.P-7) was lodged. After the F.I.R. was lodged, police investigated the matter. The body of Moharsai was sent for post mortem, which was conducted by PW-2, Dr. R.N. Gupta. Thereafter, other investigations were also conducted and on the basis of the material collected during the investigation, report under Sec. 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was filed against the accused. They were charged with having committed murder of Moharsai in furtherance of their common intention. They were also charged for the offence of forming an unlawful assembly. They pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. After trial, the accused, i.e., the Appellants herein have been convicted and sentenced as mentioned above. The other two co-accused Dirpan and Sirbhanjan have been acquitted of the charges framed against them.