LALTA PRASAD AND OTHERS Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The then 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Etawah vide his judgment and order dated 16.7.1979 passed in S.T. No. 391/1978, State Vs. Lalta Prasad and four others , convicted the accused Latta Prasad, Ram Swarup and Komal on a charge under Sec. 302/34, Penal Code and sentenced them to undergo life imprisonment. At the same time, the learned IInd Additional Sessions Judge acquitted the accused Brindaban and Nek Ram on a charge under Sec. 302/109, IPC, the only Charge framed against them alone. All the five accused charged under Sec. 120B, Penal Code were acquitted, as the prosecution could not succeed in providing the charge against them.

(2.) Against the judgment and order of conviction, three appellants, namely, Latta Prasad, Ram Swarup and Kornai have preferred this appeal, whereas, the State has not preferred any appeal against the order of acquittal passed in favour of the co-accused Brindavan and Nek Ram.

(3.) The prosecution case started on the basis of a written F.I.R. lodged by Dharam Narain, complainant on 18.4.78 at 8 A.M. The incident is said to have taken place on the same day at about 6.25 A.M. The distance of the police station is 4 miles. The accused are Lalta Prasad, Komal and Ram Swarup (all the three appellants) and Brindavar}. and Nek Ram both of them have been acquitted. It has been alleged in the F.I.R. that in the same year in the month of Jan., a dacoity had been committed at the house of the complainant's senior uncle, Sri Mewa Ram, in which Mewa Ram had been murdered. Mewa Ram's son Lalta Prasad (accused) nourished a feeling that in the dacoity the aforesaid complainant's father Sri Sobha Ram was instrumental. On that account, the accused Lalta Prasad had a ill feeling towards the complainant's father. In pursuance of the said ill-will, on 18.4.78 at about 6.15 A.M. when the complainant's father (Sobha Ram, deceased) was giving fodder to his cattle whereas, complainant' and his brother Sri Harish Chandra were present in the outer courtyard, the complainant's mother was inside the house, when the accused Lalta Prasad, Ram Swarup and Lalta Prasad's brother-in-law came out of their houses. Komal and Lalta Prasad had pistols and Ram Swarup was barehanded. All the three proceeded towards the complainant's father ferociously. Then Lalta Prasad fired a shot at the complainant's father from his pistol. The complainant's father ran towards his house. Immediately thereafter, Ram Swarup, accused caught hold of complainant's father and brought him down. At that time, Komal fired at Sobha Ram. In that process, accused Ram Swarup also received some pellet injuries. Again Lalta Prasad and Komal fired one shot upon the deceased Sobha Ram and Lalta Prasad assaulted him further with bricks twice or thrice. The complainant's mother came out of her house to the rescue of the deceased. But Lalta Prasad also injured her with a brick. Thereafter on hearing the alarm, the witnesses Amar Singh P.W. 2, Hazari Lal, P.W. 3, Raja Ram P.W. 4 (all these three witnesses have turned hostile), and others arrived there and saw the incident. Thereafter, the accused escaped. Accused Brindaban is the father-in-law of Latta Prasad's sister. Accused Nek Ram is also related to Latta Prasad (these last two accused Brindaban and Nek Ram have been acquitted). On 17.4.78, all the five accused had assembled in the grove towards the south of the village and had chalked out a plan to murder the complainant's father Sri Sobha Ram. The remaining accused also provided pistols to them.