STATE OF U.P. Vs. KHANNU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned A.G.A. for the State-respondent on the point of admission of the appeal preferred against the judgment of acquittal of the accused-respondents 'Khannu and Jhilmit' passed by the learned Special Judge, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Varanasi dtd. 1/10/2021 in the Sessions Trial No.280/1997 arisen out of Case Crime No. 103/1991 under Ss. 304, 304-A, 308, 287, 504 of the I.P.C. and Sec. 3(1)(x) and 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act, Police Station- Jansa, District Varanasi.

(2.) Learned A.G.A. on behalf of the State has challenged the impugned judgment under appeal on the ground that the learned trial court has given undue advantage to the evidence of defence and has totally ignored the prosecution witnesses and circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution along with other grounds inter alia set forth in the memo of appeal and argued that the order and judgment of acquittal of accused-respondents is illegal.

(3.) The prosecution case is based on the direct evidence of the incident reported by the P.W.1, wife of the deceased (Devnath). According to the prosecution case, on 1/8/1991 at about 7:00 a.m., in the morning, the accused respondent Khannu and Jhilmit came to her house and forcibly took away her husband and Khettal (father-in-law in relation with her) for the work of extracting out the sec. pipeline of their pumping set. The accused persons assured that the electric current was disconnected and there was no risk of current but when the pipeline was being extracted on the spot, her husband along with Khettal and one Ram Khelawan were giving support to the pipeline raising the same upward as the accused-respondents Khannu and Jhilmit were pulling the pipeline towards upside from the first floor of the room of tubewell. Suddenly, the pipeline slipped and touched to the electric wire due to which current ran into the pipeline. Ram Khelawan was thrown away by the shock of the electric current, whereas the husband of the informant namely 'Devnath' and her relative Khettal died on the spot due to shock of electric current. The prosecution has proposed the P.W.1 informant as eye witness of the incident along with the injured witness 'Ram Khelawan' as P.W.2.