MEHULKUMAR VISHNUBHAI BAROT Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals arise out of the judgment and order rendered by Sessions Court, Patan on 18.08.2005 in Sessions Case No. 425 of 2002 (old Sessions Case No. 120 of 2001). The Appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 2100 of 2005 and the Appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 1888 of 2005 were accused Nos. 1, 2 and 3 respectively before the Trial Court. They were charged to have committed murder of Pankaj Nanalal Raval on 21.04.2001 at Village Virta, Taluka Chanasma by accused No. 2 - Kirankumar Kanaiyalal Barot inflicting knife blows on the deceased, by accused No. 1 - Hiteshkumar Laljibhai Barot throwing an angle at the victim Pankaj, which hit on his neck and accused Nos. 1 and 3 giving kick and fist blows to the deceased while catching hold of him. This incident was seen by the father of the victim - Nanalal and certain other witnesses. On people gathering, the accused persons escaped from the place of incident and deceased was taken to the hospital. The deceased succumbed to the injuries suffered by him. Police was informed about the same by the Doctor initially and then, FIR was lodged by Nanalal - father of the victim. On the basis of the FIR, offence was registered and investigated and ultimately charge-sheet was filed in the Court of learned JMFC, Chanasma, who in turn, committed the case to the Court of Sessions and Sessions Case No. 425 of 2002 came to be registered. Charge was framed against the accused persons at Exh.16 for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Section 34 of the IPC, to which all the accused persons pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

(2.) Learned advocate Mr. Pratik Barot appears for original accused No. 1 - Hiteshkumar Laljibhai Barot, learned advocate Mr. Jal Unwala appears for original accused No. 2 - Kirankumar Kanaiyalal Barot and learned Senior Advocate Mr. P.M. Thakkar appears with Mr. R.J. Goswami for original accused No. 3, whereas the State is represented by learned APP, Mr. K.L. Pandya.

(3.) The prosecution case in brief is that the first informant - Nanalal and his 3 sons Jashvant, Paresh and Pankaj were all engaged in the business of making and marketing local beverage called Pepsi. On the day preceding the incident, it is the case of the prosecution that accused No. 1 went to the house of the first informant where he met Paresh. Accused No. 1 asked for Pepsi and Paresh said that it was not ready. Accused No. 1, therefore, again asked that whatever may be ready, may be given to him and Paresh again said that nothing is ready. In response to this, accused No. 1 told Paresh that he would deal with him next morning. Next morning when Nanalal was away attending some social call and Paresh alone was at stall, accused No. 1 had come there, picked up a quarrel and attacked Paresh. The hubbub attracted the neighbours and ultimately, they were separated and accused No. 1 went away. Again that very evening, accused No. 1 went to the stall of the first informant accompanied by accused Nos. 2 and 3. At that time, accused No. 1 was armed with iron angle and accused No. 2 had a big knife hidden under his socks. The size of the knife was 26 cms. with a blade size of 15 cms. long and 3 cms. wide, whereas accused No. 3 was not armed with any weapon. Upon reaching there, where accused No. 1 inquired about Jashvant, then Pankaj, who was sitting on the stall, replied that Jashvant had gone out and what work did they have. In response to the answer, the accused persons gave abuses to Pankaj. First informant - Nanalal who was sitting on a bench near the stall, initially did not intervene, but the moment he noticed that accused No. 1 inflicted an angle blow on head of his son and accused No. 2 is about to inflict a knife blow on his son Pankaj, he intervened and in that intervention, suffered injury on his thumb and chin. In the meantime, accused No. 2 inflicted a blow with the knife on chest of the deceased, which went deep into thoracic cavity. Accused Nos. 1 and 3, by that time, caught hold of the victim and started giving kick and fist blows, whereas accused No. 2 once again inflicted a knife blow, which landed on the left hip of the victim. In the meantime, many persons had assembled and have rushed to the spot. The assailants, therefore, ran away. The deceased was taken to the hospital and while under treatment, he died within 10 minutes. The FIR was lodged. Inquest Panchnama and postmortem was done and at the end of the investigation, charge-sheet was filed in the Court of learned JMFC, Chanasma. The case was committed to the Court of Sessions and Sessions Case No. 425 of 2002 (old Sessions Case No. 120 of 2001) came to be registered and the learned Presiding Officer recorded conviction and imposed punishment as stated hereinabove and hence, these appeals.