SAHDEO ALIAS CHHOTU YADAV Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals have been directed against the judgment and order dated 31. 1. 2003 passed in Sessions trial No. 160/2002 by the Fourth additional Sessions Judge (F. T. C.), Janjgir (C. G.),whereby, the appellants have been convicted u/ss 302 and 201 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 100, in default of payment of fine to undergo R. I. for 1 month and r. I. for 5 years and to pay fine of Rs. 500, in default of payment of fine to undergo R. I. for 6 months, with a further direction to run the sentences concurrently.

(2.) THE facts, briefly stated, are as under: on 1. 3. 2002, at about 7. 00 a. m. , Sarju prasad Rathore (PW1) saw two dead bodies lying in Mundinala near birgahni Chowk. He lodged Merg intimations (Ex. P1and P2) in the concerned police station. The Investigating officer reached to that place, gave notices (Ex. P40 and P41) to the Panchas and prepared inquest reports (Ex. P42 and P43) on the dead bodies of the deceased persons which were identified to be the bodies of Amardas @ Ammu and Anil Kumar, residents of Sadar bazaar, Champa. Site plan was prepared under Ex. P44a and another site plan was prepared by, Halka Patwari under Ex. P15 blood stained soil, plain soil and two pairs of chappels were seized from Mundinala under Ex. P37. During the course of investigation of the Merg, the Investigating Officer came to know that the deceased persons were assaulted by the accused/ appellants by lathi, iron hammer and pava (the leg of the cot) in the intervening night of 28. 2. 2002 and 1. 3. 2002 in the hotel belonging to appellant suresh Kumar Patel which was situated at Birgahni Chowk and their dead bodies were thrown by them in the nala. On such information, he recorded dehatinalishi (Exp46) at 2. 00 p. m. , based on which, a First Information report (Ex. P47) was lodged. Blood stained soil and plain soil were seized from the place of occurrence (hotel of appellant Suresh Kumar Patel) under ex. P36. The dead bodies of the deceased persons were sent for their post-mortem to District Hospital, janjgir under Ex. P16 and P27, where the post-mortem examinations were conducted by Dr. R. S. Prabhakar (PW4) and Dr. R. D. Gupta (PW6), who prepared their reports Ex. P17 and P28. They noticed multiple grievous injuries on the vital parts of the bodies, including the skull, of the deceased persons and opined that the death or the deceased persons were caused by coma and haematoma due to head injuries and the deceased persons died homicidal death. In further investigation, after taking the accused/appellants into custody, their memorandum statements (Ex. P3, P4, P9 and P33) were recorded u/s 27of the Evidence Act and pava of cot (3 Nos.) and iron hammer were seized at the instance of the accused persons under Ex. P5, P6, P11 and P34. Cloths of the accused persons were also seized. The seized articles were sent for their chemical examination to Forensic science Laboratory, Raipur, from where, a report Ex. P59 was obtained. According to the F. S. L. report, blood stains were found on the pava and the hammer seized from accused/ appellants Sahdeo and Suresh. After completion of usual investigation, the charge-sheet was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, janjgir, who in turn committed the matter to the concerned Sessions court, from where, it was received on transfer by the Fourth Additional Sessions judge (F. T. C.), Janjgir (C. G.), who conducted the trial and convicted and sentenced the accused/appellants as aforementioned.

(3.) THE prosecution came with a case based on two sets of evidence. One was the eyewitness account of sole eyewitness Ishwari yadav (PW9) who also narrated the story to Laxminarayan (PW5 ). The other was the extra-judicial confession made by appellant suresh Kumar before Rajesh Kumar Tiwari (PW7), Gulab (PW10), Ganesh Prasad Sahu (PW11) and Dharmendra (PW15) in which he allegedly confessed that he along with the other appellants namely Shiv Ram, dharmendra @ Gudda and Sahdeo @ chhotu Yadav had committed the murder of the deceased persons.