JHAMMAN YADAV Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants Jhamman Yadav, Radhey Yadav, Nandu and Agardu, having been convicted of the charge under Section 302 read with Section 34, I.P.C. and sentenced to Imprisonment for Life by Sri G. S. Chaube, the then Special Judge, Varanasi in Sessions Trial No. 538 of 1982 relating to P. S. Cholapur, District Varanasi, have preferred this appeal.

(2.) The facts leading to this appeal, in short, are that in the wee hours on 9-11-1982, the informant Jitendra Kumar Singh accompanied by his elder brother Surendra Singh and collaterals Paras Singh (P.W. 2) and Babban Singh (P.W. 3) had gone to the pumping set of Ram Dular Kurmi (P.W. 5) of his village to irrigate his field lying to the north of that pumping set at a distance of about 200 steps. At the time of their arrival at the pumping set, the field of one Ram Adhar Singh was being irrigated. Ram Dular at that time was not present there. Jitendra Kumar Singh his deceased brother Surendra Singh, Paras Singh and Babban Singh sat on the cots lying beneath a Chhappar over-hanging the eastern wall of the room of the pumping set in wait of Ram Dular. It is said that at about 5 a.m. appellants Jhamman Yadav, Rathey Yadav, Nandu and Agardu, all armed with country-made pistols, appeared there and out of them, Agardu, Nandu and Jhamman Yadav dragged Surendra Singh to the north of the Chhappar and shot at him from their respective weapons causing his instantaneous death. During the course of incident, appellant Radhey Yadav stood by the side of the information and other witnesses present there and issued threats, saying that if any of them moved from his place, he would kill him. It is also alleged that while dragging Surendra Singh, Radhey Yadav had exhorted his companions to kill him, saying that it was he who was doing Pairvi of cases and with his death, all matters would stand resolved. After the incident, all the accused managed to run away through the sugarcane field of Ram Dular lying to the east of his pumping set. At the time of incident, an electric bulb was allegedly glowing at the pumping set and there was also moonlight in which the witnesses are said to have identified the assailants. Soon after the incident, Jitendra Kumar Singh (P.W. 1) set out for P. S. Cholapur, which lies to the south of the place of occurrence at a distance of four miles. On his way to police station, he scribed a written report (Ext. Kha-1) and made it over at the police station, on the basis of which Syed Hasan Muztaba, then posted as Head Moharrir at P. S. Cholapur, drew Chik F.I.R. (Ext. Ka-2) and registered a case against the accused vide G. D. (Ext. Ka 3) at 6.15 a.m. Inspector S. P. N. Tripathi (P.W. 8) at that time was posted as Station Officer P. S. Cholapur. On registration of the case, he swung into action, took the investigation of this case in his hand and after recording the statement of the informant, proceeded to the spot where he held inquest on the dead body of the victim and after completing other necessary formalities, sealed the dead body and sent it to mortuary at Varanasi through constables Mohammad Yousuf Khan and Umesh Kumar Pandey for its post-mortem examination, which was conducted by Dr. P. N. Shukla (P.W. 7) then posted as Medical Officer S. S. P. G. Hospital, Varanasi at 2 p.m. on 9-11-1982. According to Dr. Shukla, the body of the deceased was of average built. The eyes were half-opened and mouth partially opened. Dr. Shukla found the following ante-mortem injuries on the dead body:

(3.) As per post-mortem report, the victim had died due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of ante-mortem gun shot injuries. In the opinion of Dr. Shukla, ante-mortem injuries 1 to 3 were possible by three shots and injury No. 4 was the exit of injury No. 2. He was of the view that the ante-mortem injuries could have been caused around 5 a.m. on 9-11-1982.