SHAILENDRA THAKUR Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose off these seven appeals which arise out of judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 13.3.2015 passed by learned Special Judge, Durg in Special Case No.25 of 2005 and 47 of 2005 whereby and whereunder the appellants, 13 in numbers, have been held guilty of commission of offence alleged against them and sentenced as described below :-

(2.) The prosecution case, as is unfolded from the impugned judgment of conviction and voluminous records of the case is that an incident of assault happened on 11.2.2005 in which Mahadev Mahar (deceased) was allegedly assaulted by the present appellants and other accused persons. Prashant Sharma (PW8) informed over telephone in Police Station Supela on 11.2.2005 that Mahadev Mahar was murdered by accused Tapan Sarkar and his associates. Upon receipt of such information, a police officer arrived at the stated place of occurrence and recorded a morgue intimation at the instance of said Prashant. This was followed by spot FIR prepared at the spot on the basis of said information that Mahadev Mahar was assaulted by dangerous weapons like firearm, sharp edged weapon, clubs. The spot morgue and FIR were taken to police station where numbered morgue and FIR was duly recorded. Dead body of Mahadev Mahar was sent for postmortem. Postmortem was conducted by the doctor which revealed multiple injuries, 21 in numbers, which included bullet shot as well. The doctor opined that cause of death was shock and hemorrhage as a direct and immediate result of large number of antemortem injuries. The clothes, bullets and other articles which were collected from the spot were duly seized and sent for forensic examination. During investigation, the appellants and other accused were arrested from time to time and their respective memoranda were recorded and it is said that on the basis of these memoranda of appellants, mobile phones, SIM card, button knife, katta (local made revolver) empty cartridge, live cartridge, coconut cutting knife, motorcycle, car were recovered from different accused by the Investigating Officer and those articles which required forensic test like bullets, empty cartridge, pistol, revolver, scratches of skin, live cartridges were sent for forensic examination. As the allegation against all the appellants was of hatching conspiracy, in furtherance of which Mahadev was murdered, call details of mobile cell phones said to be seized from number of appellants were also collected from the telecom company. Serologist's report and FSL report were thereafter collected. Identification parade in respect of some of the accused were also conducted. On applications made by some of the prosecution witnesses, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Durg recorded 164 Cr.P.C. statements of Santosh @ Gudda @ Prashant, Chandan Sao, Girwar Sahu, Linga Raju and Santosh @ Dhanji. Upon completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed against the appellants and some other accused. Some of the accused remained absconding and one of the accused Govind Vishwakarma died in police encounter. Sahjad, P. Pritsh, Gaya Udiya @ Jaychand Pradhan remained absconding. On the basis of material contained in the charge sheet, trial Court framed charges against each of the appellant that the appellants along with other accused hatched conspiracy to commit murder of Mahadev and in furtherance of this conspiracy and common object, they formed unlawful assembly and towards execution of the said common object, they all went to Subhash Chowk on 11.2.2005 at 6:35 AM. They all reached, armed with dangerous weapons and then opened assault on Mahadev by various weapons including firearm and committed his murder. The charges were also framed for attempt to commit murder of some other persons. The appellants having abjured guilt were put to trial.

(3.) Learned trial Court mainly relied upon the eyewitness account of Chandan Sao (PW7) and other evidence given by remaining witnesses, seizure of weapon on the memoranda of appellants, serological and FSL report and held present appellants guilty of commission of offence, though some of the accused namely Mujibuddin, Arvind Shrivastava @ Gullu, Jaideep and Vinod Bihari were acquitted of charges of commission of offence under Section 302 read with Section 149 and 148 IPC. The present appellants were convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 and 148 IPC and Section 25 (1B) (a), 27(1) of the Arms Act respectively. All the appellants and other accused were acquitted of charges of commission of offence under Section 120-B, 307/149, 212, 216 IPC and Section 3 (ii) (v) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Ranjeet Singh and Bobby @ Vidyut Chaudhary were acquitted of charges under Section 25 (1B) (a) and 27 (a) of the Arms Act thereof. The appellants were sentenced life imprisonments for commission of offence under Section 302 IPC and lessor sentence for other offences, all of which are directed to run concurrently.