RAMDAYAL CHARANLAL SHARMA Vs. THE STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present appeals, filed by the original accused Nos. 1, 3 and 6, assail the judgment and order dated 29/08/2006 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No. 7, Ahmedabad (Rural) in Special (Atrocity) Case No. 52 of 2003, whereby, while acquitting the original accused Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 7 from all the charges levelled against them, the learned trial Judge was pleased to convict the original accused Nos. 1, 3 and 6 for the offence punishable under Section 302 and 326 respectively and for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for brevity, 'the IPC'), the original accused Nos. 1 and 6 were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one year, whereas, the original accused No. 3 was convicted for the offence punishable under Section 326 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and a fine of Rs. 3,000/- in default of payment of fine, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for six months. Accordingly, present appeals have been filed by the original accused Nos. 1, 3 and 6 against conviction.

(2.) Filtering the unnecessary details, the facts of the prosecution case are that keeping grudge of the fact of deceased Vijay Ratilal Parmar had worked for the Bhartiya Janata Party in the assembly elections on 12/12/2002, the accused, by forming unlawful assembly in furtherance of their common object, on 13/12/2002 at 17:30 hours, near Harsiddhi Mata temple situated at Indira Nagar - 2 at Lambha, attacked and assaulted him with deadly weapons like gupti, sword and wooden stick and when deceased Jitendra Prabhatbhai Solanki tried to intervene, they also attacked and assaulted him. In the assault, the duo sustained grievous injuries and ultimately, succumbed to the injuries. Thus, the accused committed the alleged offence for which, a complaint came to be lodged against the accused for the offence punishable under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 302 of the IPC and Section 3(2)(5) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act.

(3.) We have heard Mr. Y.S. Lakhani, learned senior advocate, assisted by Mr. Jignesh Hajare and Mr. Maulin G. Pandya, learned advocates for the respective appellants in both the appeals and Ms. C.M. Shah, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, for the State.