HAUSILA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY his judgment dated December 21, 1974, the Ilnd Additional Sessions Judge, Azamgarh, convicted Hausila under section 396 IPC and sentenced hint to undergo imprisonment for life in sessions trial No. 264 of 1974 (State v. Hausila). Hence the present appeal.

(2.) IT is said that on the night between March 1 and 2, 1973 a gang of five armed dacoits raided the house of Surya Nath (PW 3) situate in village Junarder Patti police station Ahraula district Azamgarh of whom two, including the appellant, stood at the door and the rest committed dacoity in the house after breaking open its main door. Hearing the noise of the breaking open of the door, PW 3 Surya Nath who was sleeping in a chhapper along with his uncle Siri at a distance of about six paces got up, flashed his torch and on sighting the dacoits ran towards the village raising an alarm. He reached the Sehan of Millu Gadori where Ram Dular (PW 5) of village Payagpur of which the abadi is close by, had also arrived from his house which is at a distance of about 200 paces. IT is said that Ram Ugrah of village Payagpur along with Sambhal Kewat had reached the grove of Siya Ram near the Sehan aforesaid and saw the incident in the light of torches. Likewise, two other persons, namely, Rajdeo and Phirtu had also arrived at the scene of the incident along with their torches and further there was a light of a lantern in the outer Osara of one Nirkhi, an uncle of Surya Nath whose house adjoins the house of the latter to its east. Balli, another uncle of Surya Nath has a house further to the east and all these houses had thatched roof with tiles. Having heard the alarm, Nirkhi and Balli woke up and ascended on the tiled roof from where they started throwing tiles on the dacoits. The two dacoits who stood at the door were recognised to be the appellant Hausila and his brother Ram Sanehi, and it is said that Hausila was armed with a gun and fired three shots with it of which the last hit Balli while he was on the tiled roof. The dacoits ran away after committing the dacoity. An oral report was lodged by Surya Nath at the police station at about 2.30 a.m. the same night giving his version of the incident and also naming the appellant and his brother. At 7 45 a.m. on March 2, 1973, the Medical Officer of Ahraula Dispensary (Dr. G. D. Prasad) examined Balli and incorporated the injuries sustained by him in the memo Ext. Ka. 4. Balli was sent by Dr. G. D. Prasad to the District Hospital but he died before he could reach there, and it was his dead body which reached the Hospital at about 11.45 a.m. On March, 3, 1973, postmortem examination of the body was made at 3.15 p.m. by the Superintendent of the District Hospital, Azamgarh (Dr. N. Gupta) who found the following ante mortem injuries on the person of the deceased :

(3.) TO establish its case, the prosecution examined the reporter Surya Nath as PW 3 ; Ram Ugrah Singh as PW 4, Ram Dular Singh as PW 5 and Nirkhi as PW 6 as eye witnesses of the incident. They deposed to the prosecution version and asserted that the appellant was the dacoit who was armed with a gun and had fired with it causing fatal injuries to Balli deceased. We shall deal with their evidence in further detail later. The appellant denied his participation and his case was that he had been implicated falsely on account of enmity with the witnesses. The learned Sessions Judge, as noticed earlier, believed the prosecution witnesses and convicted the appellant.