SATISH CHANDRA Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant Satish Chandra was put on trial for committing offence under Section 302/34 IPC in S.T. No. 1938/1999. Similarly, his sons Nishant and Prashant were also tried for committing the aforesaid offence in S.T. No. 136 of 2000. Both the session trials came to be decided by the Court of Sessions Judge, Ghaziabad on 27.5.2010, convicting them under Sections 302/34 IPC. After hearing them on sentence, the trial Court on 29.5.2010, held that Prashant was a juvenile in conflict with law within the meaning of Section 2(1) of Juvenile Justice (Protection and Care of Children) Act, 2000, as such, his case was referred to Juvenile Board, Meerut under Section 20 of the Act for appropriate orders on sentence, but Satish Chandra and Nishant were sentenced for rigorous imprisonment for life alongwith fine of Rs. 50,000/- each in respect of the above count. Nishant challenges his conviction and sentence in Criminal Appeal No. 3840 of 2010 and Satish Chandra does so in Criminal Appeal No. 3993 of 2010.

(2.) The case has its genesis in a written report dated 8.7.1999 (Ex.ka-7) lodged by Chandrabhan (PW-1) and scribed by one Sukhan Singh (not examined), wherein it was stated that the brother of the informant Surajbhan was a bachelor; the accused-appellants conspired to obtain a sale-deed in respect of the share of his brother Surajbhan about seven months ago in respect of which, litigation was pending; on the fateful day at about 3 p.m., the appellants forcibly started ploughing the fields of the informant and on a protest made by Surajbhan, the appellants displayed belligerence. On noticing belligerent behaviour, Surajbhan screamed for help, as a result of which the informant (PW-1), his wife Smt. Rohtas (PW-3), Bhajju Singh (PW-2) (Mausa of PW-3) ran from the house to see that Nishant was armed with a country-made pistol, Satish with ballam (spear) and Prashant Kumar with lathi; Satish Chandra was exhorting his sons to catch-hold of Surajbhan and he be put to death; on exhortations, Nishant Kumar and Prashant Kumar caught-hold of Surajbhan and Satish Kumar inflicted spear blows, due to which Surajbhan died at the spot. This incident was witnessed by numerous persons in the village and when the informant proceeded to nab the accused, they ran away in the fields firing shots.

(3.) On the basis of the written report, PW-5, Changa Singh registered the FIR (Ex. Ka-3) under Section 302/504 IPC against the appellants, drew copies thereof and the contents of the same were also recorded in general diary on the same date at entry No. 34 at 4 pm. PW-6 Subhash Narain Yadav was the SHO of PS Garhmukteshwar. On registration of the FIR, he proceeded for the spot and carried out the inquest (Ex.ka-4) under the directions of SI R.L. Yadav (CW-1). CW-1 also prepared the dead body challan (Ex.ka-6), sketch of the dead body (Ex.ka-7) and letters for CMO (Ex.ka-8). PW-6 verified the signatures of CW-1 on the documents prepared by him. He also collected ordinary earth and blood-stained earth from the spot and prepared a file under the signatures of R.L. Yadav (CW-1), which was marked as (Ex.ka-9). On the same date, he recorded the statements of the various witnesses, carried out a spot inspection and prepared a site plan (Ex.ka-10). He, on 23.7.1999 in the presence of two public witnesses, recovered the bellam (spear) at the pointing out of accused Satish from the sugarcane fields of Sunil and a file (Ex.ka-11) was prepared. After closure of investigation, a charge-sheet was submitted under Section 302/34 IPC and the case was put to trial.