SADDIK ALIAS LALO GULAM Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE aforesaid two Appeals have been preferred by the accused persons against the judgement and order of conviction and sentence dated 16th November, 2006, passed by learned Additional Sessions judge, Surat, whereby the present appellants have been convicted mainly for an offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 143, 147, 148, 323 of the Indian Penal Code, for life imprisonment and to pay a fine of rs. 1,000/-, in default, to undergo further simple imprisonment of six months, and they were acquitted for the offence punishable under Section 504 of the Indian Penal code and for the offence under The Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocity)Act, 1989 Criminal Appeal no. 2274 of 2006 has been preferred by accused no. 5 whereas Criminal Appeal No. 117 of 2007 has been preferred by accused Nos. 1 to 4.

(2.) IF the facts of the prosecution are unfolded, they are summarised in short, as under.

(3.) AN offence of murder of Rajubhai ramubhai Vasava has taken place on 4th march,2005 at Village: Amboli, District: surat at about 20-21 hours. A complainant i. e. Rajubhai Jesingbhai Vasava along with p. W. Nos. 2 and 3 and with his other friends had gone to Village: Amboli on 4th March, 2005 at about 8. 00 p. m. for eating biriyani. They ordered four plates of biriyani, but, accused No. 1 gave only three plates of biriyani and insisted money for four plates of biriyani. This is how the complainant and witnesses had exchange of hot altercation with accused No. 1 i. e. Saddikbhai @ Lallo gulam Hussein Shaikh. Thereafter, they had to pay money for four plates of biriyani. Accused No. 1 was abusing complainant and the prosecution witnesses and had also shown a knife. P. W. No. 3 intervened and they separated complainant, other prosecution witnesses and accused No. 1. Thereafter, when complainant and prosecution witnesses were travelling to Village: Kholwad on two motorcycles, they met uncle of the complainant i. e. Kishorbhai Kantibhai dholia (P. W. No. 5) and the whole incident had been narrated before P. W. No. 5, who assured that he knew accused No. 1 and he will settle their dispute. Thereafter, P. W. No. 5 had gone to take petrol in his motor cycle. Complainant and other prosecution witnesses waited for P. W. No. 5 to come back, at Bus-stand of village: Kholwad. At that time, accused persons came in two separate rickshaws. Accused Nos. l, 2 and 3 had knives, whereas, other accused persons had sticks in their hands. It is stated by P. W. No. 1 in FIR that these accused persons started beating. Accused Nos. l, 2 and 3 caused knife injuries to Rajubhai Ramubhai Vasava and other accused persons started beating with sticks to complainant and other prosecution eyewitnesses. Thereafter, complainant i. e. P. W. No. l, P. W. No. 2 and P. W. No. 3 had run away to save themselves. They had gone to the house of P. W. No. l and talked to his father jesingbhai Chhaganbhai Vasava (P. W. No. 14) about the whole incident. This jesingbhai Vasava (P. W. No. 14) took a car of one Shri Aminbhai and came at the place of scene of offence. There, he saw that rajubhai's condition was critical, therefore, he was taken to Dinbandhu Hospital. As his condition was deteriorating and critical, he was shifted to Mahavir Hospital, where, he expired. All the accused persons were named in the FIR and in the depositions of eye-witnesses, who are P. W. Nos. 1,2 and 3 they have clearly narrated the role played by the accused persons. Weapons have also been narrated. P. W. No. l injured eye-witness, was examined by Dr. Mukundkumar (P. W. No. 12 ). P. W. No. l was sent to Dr. Mukundbhai (P. W. No. 12) with police yadi and injury certificate is at Exh-63. Incident had taken place on 4th March,2005 at about 20-21 hours. FIR was filed on the same date i. e. on 4th March,2005 at 23-55 hours before kamrej Police Station, which was registered as C. R. No. I-30 of 2005. Postmortem of the deceased Rajubhai Vasava was performed by Dr. Pranav Vinodchandra Prajapati (P. W. No. 15 ). Looking to the postmortem note at Exh-67, there were injuries on chest, stomach and intestine by knives. Knives and sticks were also recovered during the course of investigation. Upon completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed and Special atrocity Case No. 6 of 2005 was registered against the appellants-accused and upon recording evidence of the prosecution witnesses, accused have been convicted mainly for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal code for life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in case of default, further simple imprisonment of six months. Against this order of conviction passed by the Trial ' Court, accused No. 5 has preferred Criminal appeal No. 2274 of 2006 and Criminal Appeal No. 117 of 2007 has been preferred by original accused Nos. 1 to 4, 6 and 7.