LAWS(CHH)-2016-2-23

PASHURAM S/O TULARAM Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

Decided On February 02, 2016
Pashuram S/O Tularam Appellant
V/S
STATE OF CHHATTISGARH Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant No.3 Somdas Bhatra and Appellant No.4 Guru died during the pendency of the appeal and as such the Appeal abates with regard to them and now survives only so far as the Appellants 1 & 2 are concerned. Inimical

(2.) The Appellants in the present Appeal stand convicted for the offence under Sections 302 and 201 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with fine of Rs. 500/- u/s 302 and rigorous imprisonment for three years with fine of Rs.500/- u/s 201 with default stipulations by the judgement dated 01.10.2001 passed by the Court of Special Judge, SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Bastar at Jagdalpur in S. T. No.165/2001.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that the Appellants along with the deceased Somnath were working as labourer in the field of Mohan Nag (PW-1) in village Pakela for digging purpose. One Saturday around 1 p.m. the Appellants came to the house of PW-1 for demanding their wages and at that time, the deceased was not in their company. PW-1 told the Appellants of giving the money later. Second day PW-1 is said to have gone to the field for some measurement work where he met with the Appellants but did not see the deceased there. Third day when PW-1 again went to the field, he saw a dog eating a corpse. He went near and saw that the dog, in fact, was eating a dead body of a male which he immediately reported to Sarpanch and Kotwar of the village. All of them again went to the spot and saw the dead body. Since the accused persons were working in the filed, they were suspected and were also not traceable therefore more suspicion arose against them. After much search, ultimately, the Appellants were found and on questioning, it is said that they confessed of having committed the murder of Somnath on the issue of not bringing fresh water for cooking for which they assaulted the deceased. The Appellants are said to have assaulted Somnath with hand, fist and Lathi and after death, they buried his body in the field. On 10.01.2001 the matter was reported to Police Station, Sukma who initially registered a Merg and later on, on the same day FIR Exhibit P-2 was registered. Dr. R. K. Nachankar PW-5 reached the spot and got the body exhumed from the field. He also conducted the postmortem and gave a report Exhibit P-10. The cause of death of the deceased was opined to be because of multiple fractures on skull and homicidal in nature and the duration of death was shown to be more than 90 hours. During the course of investigation, the Appellants are said to have given memorandum statement on the basis of which Lathis were recovered from Appellants Pashuram, Sada and Somdas. In due course, after investigation was complete, charge sheet for the offence under Sections 302, 201 read with section 34 of IPC was filed and the matter was put to trial. The Court below by the impugned judgment found the Appellants to be guilty for the offence for which they were charged and convicted them leading to the filing of the present Appeal.