PANCHU YADAV Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals are directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 17th of December, 2002 passed in Special Case No. 155/ 2001 by the Special Judge under S. C. and S. T (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, bilaspur, whereby appellant Panchu Yadav has been convicted under Section 302 IPC and Section 3 (2) (V) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as the Special Act) and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life in two counts respectively and to pay a fine of Rs. 500 in the first count, in default thereof to further undergo s. I. for two months and the appellant Ram bharose has been convicted under Section 302/34 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of rs. 500 in default thereof, to further undergo s. I. for two months.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that on 18. 8. 2001, Dilip Kumar, since deceased, was grazing his cattle in Gadahiyadihkhar. Ishwari Prasad (P. W. 2) and Bhuruwa Ram (P. W. 4) were also grazing their cattle in nearby place. At about 3 p. m. , appellant panchu came there along with his one associate. He started abusing Dilip, saying why he has brought his cattle for grazing to this place. Some hot exchanges took place between them. The allegations are that panchu gave one lathi blow to Dilip, on which, Dilip fell down and when Dilip stood up he gave another blow, due to which, Dilip became unconscious and later on he died. Mahettar (P. W. I) is the grandfather of the deceased. He neached to the place of occurrence immediately and the incident was narrated to him. Thereafter he went to the police station and lodged the First Information Report, Ex. P1.

(3.) THE Investigating Officer reached to the scene of occurrence, prepared inquest, ex. P. 4, on the body of deceased and sent the dead body for post-mortem vide Ex. P9a. The post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. Ashok Singh (P. W. 7), who prepared his report Ex. P. 10. The autopsy surgeon noticed two external injuries, one contusion and one lacerated wound on the forehead and left fronto-parietal region with fracture of fronto-parietal bone. He opined that the cause of death was shock due to intra-cranial haemorrhage. The caste certificate of the deceased Dilip, Ex. P. 9, was also seized. Thereafter, appellant Panchu was taken into custody and his memorandum under Section 27 of the Evidence Act was recorded vide Ex. P5, in pursuance of which, a bamboo club was seized under ex. P6. The seized articles were sent for their chemical examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory from where Report Ex. P13 was received. In further investigation, appellant Ram Bharose was arrested on 26. 9. 2001 and was put to test identification parade on 12. 10. 2001. He was identified by ishwari Prasad (P. W. 2) and Bhuruwa Ram (P. W. 4) and identification memo Ex. P14 was prepared by the Executive Magistrate.