STATE OF U P Vs. BASHISHT RAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EIGHT persons were tried before the II Additional Sessions Judge, Ghazipur in Sessions trial No.215 of 1979. They were (1) Bashisht Rai, (2) Jai Prakash Rai, (3) Ashok Rai, (4) Awadh Narain Rai, (5) Hirdaya Narain Rai, (6) Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai, (7) Loknath Rai and (8) Ramnath Rai. The charges against the accused Bashisht Rai were under Sections 148, 302 and 449 I.P.C. Accused Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai and Ashok Rai were charged under Sections 148, 449 and 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. The remaining five accused were charged under Sections 147 and 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. Accused Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai and Ashok Rai were also alternatively charged under Section 302 I.P.C. read with Section 34 I.P.C.

(2.) ONLY accused Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai was convicted under Section 302 I.P.C. read with Sections 34 I.P.C. and 449 I.P.C. He was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment on both the counts and sentences were directed to run concurrently. The remaining accused were acquitted. Aggrieved, the State has filed the instant appeal against acquittal in which Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai has also wrongly been impleaded as respondent No.6, though he was convicted as stated earlier. In fact, he filed Criminal Appeal No.832 of 1981 against his conviction. However, he died during the pendency of the appeal and the same abated on 5 -7 -2005. Therefore, presently the Court is concerned with the remaining seven accused who were acquitted by the trial Court.

(3.) THE broad features of the prosecution case as coming to surface from the F.I.R. and evidence adduced in the Court may be noted. The accused, deceased Kailash Rai, the informant Kamla Rai and the witnesses of the incident were living in village Tarwa. All the accused, excepting Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai, belonged to one family being descendants of a common ancestor Deepan Rai. Accused Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai was the son of Babu Lal brother of Ram Datt (father of Kailash Rai deceased and Kamla Rai informant PW 1). The deceased Kailash Rai and other members of his family lived jointly while Babu Lal and his son Jangali Rai had separated 7 -8 months before the occurrence by means of an oral partition. The land of village Dhondhapur was allotted to Babu Lal and his son while the remaining members of the family got the land of village Tarwa and other villages in Ghazipur. The family also had some land in Lakhimpur Kheri which was partitioned between them. Ram Janam Rai, Bachchu Lal and Hira Lal used to look after the cultivation of the land in Lakhimpur Kheri belonging to the branch of the informant Kamla Rai. Babu Lal used to look after his share of the land there. Kailash Rai deceased was the Karta of his family as regards the cultivation of the land in village Tarwa. About a month after the partition, Jangali Rai who used to stay at Ghazipur started quarreling. He insisted that he should be given the land near the pumping set of village Tandwa according to his share. His father Babu Lal was, however, not agreeable to it. An altercation took place between Kailash Rai and accused Umesh Chandra Rai alias Jangali Rai in this connection whereby the deceased firmly told the accused Jangali Rai that the land of village Tandawa would not be given to him. After this altercation, Jangali Rai developed intimacy with the accused Loknath Rai who had a personal enmity with the informant Kamla Rai PW 1. Loknath Rai and Kamla Rai were litigating also on civil as well as criminal sides. There had been a Marpit between the two sides.