MANOHAR LAL Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS criminal appeal has been directed against the judgment and order dated 03.12.2005 passed by the then 1st Addl. Sessions Judge, Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar in S.T. No.7 of 1999, whereby the Addl. Sessions Judge has convicted the ac­cused/appellant u/s 307/323 I.P.C. read with 34 I.P.C. and sentenced him to un­dergo 10 years' R.I. u/s 307/34 I.P.C. and one year u/s 323/34 I.P.C. The accused/appellant was further directed to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-. It was further directed that in default of payment of fine, the accused/appellant would undergo further one year imprisonment. Both the sentences would run concurrently.

(2.) THE prosecution case, in nutshell, is that on 30/10/1996 at about 8:00 a.m., the accused/appellant alongwith his wife Suman and an unknown person armed with knife and danda entered into the house of the informant Pooran lal and started assaulting the informant. On hearing the hue and cry, brother of the informant, Satpal and his neighbour, Ram Babu reached at the spot to scot-free the inform­ant from the clutches of the accused/ap­pellant and other persons. When Satpal intervened in the melee, the accused/ap­pellants assaulted him by knife on his stom­ach. The accused/appellants also caused injury on the person of the injured Ram Babu by beating him by danda. The accused/appellants entered into the house of the complainant with a common intention to commit the offence. After sustaining the knife injury, Satpal fell down on the ground. Thereafter, he was taken to Rudrapur Hos­pital in a serious condition, from where he was referred to Base Hospital, Haldwani for better treatment. Meanwhile, Ram Babu was also taken to the hospital where he was examined by the doctors. PW7 Dr. P.C. Pholeria conducted surgery of the in­jured Satpal in the Base Hospital, Haldwani. Thereafter, on the next day of the incident, i.e. 01-11-1996 at about 8.35 p.m., F.I.R. was lodged at the police sta­tion, Rudrapur by the informant Pooran lal. The matter was investigated by the police. Initially, the case was lodged u/s 324 I.P.C. and later on it was converted u/s 307 I.P.C. After investigation of the matter, charge-sheet was submitted against the accused/appellant.

(3.) THE prosecution in support of its case examined informant PW1 Pooran Lal; PW2 injured Satpal; PW3 Dr. M.C. Tiwari, PW4 Dr. S.P.S. Sandhu; PW5 Ram Babu; PW6 I.O. S.I. Sri Lala Ram Gangwar and PW7 Dr. P.C. Pholeria. The accused/ap­pellants did not adduce any evidence in their defence.