LALUBHA KESHRISINH GARASIA AND Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the three appeals arise out of a judgment given in Special Case No. 29 of 1991 of the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Surendranagar which came to be tried by him as a Special Judge in his charge as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was involved. The main charge, no doubt, was under Section 302 of I.P.C. read with Section 34 as also under Section 307 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C.

(2.) The incident happened on 29-4-1991 at about 11.30 a.m. in Malar Chowk area of Surendranagar town. The prosecution witnesses and the victim of the crime all belonged to Harijan Community and the accused are either Muli or Rajputs. They are armed with weapons like Dharia, stick, sword etc. and at the aforesaid place and time they assaulted the prosecution witnesses. One of whom died and another received serious injuries. The surviving injured witnesses are Jirambhai Valabhai and Jethabhai Valabhai. The person lost life is Khushal Manji. Complaint came to be given by one of the injured witnesses Jethabhai Valabhai. The reason for the incident is said to be what transpired on previous evening while the accused party was singing devotional songs. There seems to be a complaint filed in this regard and the other side i.e. the prosecution side were also on way to file a complaint with regard to their grievances. In all 8 such accused were facing trial and at the end of it, the learned Judge convicted only accused No. 1 and 5 for offence under Section 307 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C. and under Section 3(2)(v) of the said Atrocities Act.

(3.) For the offence under Section 307 read with Section 34 of I.P.C. both the accused came to be awarded sentence of five years rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs. 1000.00 and in default to undergo three months simple imprisonment, while for the offence under the Atrocities Act, they were awarded rigorous imprisonment for seven years and fine of Rs. 1000.00 and in default simple imprisonment for three months in respect of each of the accused.