DINESH KUMAR Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed under Sec. 374 (2) of the Cr.P.C. against the judgment dtd. 15/10/1997 passed by Ist Additional Sessions Judge, Rewa in S.T. No.173/1990, whereby learned Sessions Judge found appellants guilty and convicted and sentenced them as under :

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that on 25/10/1988 at around 6:30 a.m., Ram Gopal left his house to go to Pahi, on the way, when he reached near Shiv Prasad's house, located at village Gurheta, co-accused Shiv Prasad, his son Dinesh Kumar, appellant no.1 and Ram Naresh, appellant no.2 came out from their house armed with sticks, spear and knife, they stopped Ram Gopal and assaulted him with the stick, spear and knife and also abused him. On hearing shouting, Ram Gopal's son Sampat Kumar (PW-7), Daya Shankar (PW-8) and wife Yashoda (PW-9) came there to rescue him, then they also assaulted them. At this time, two other unknown persons (later their names came to be learnt as Hardayal and Sualal @ Rajmani) also came on the spot from the side of Shiv Prasad's house, they also assaulted them due to which Ram Gopal, Daya Shankar, Sampat Kumar and Yashoda sustained injuries. On hearing the shouting, Vishale kurmi, Ram Jivan (PW-10) and other people came to the spot, who saw the incident and rescued Ram Gopal and other injured. Ram Gopal lodged the report (Ex.P-11) of the incident at PS Mauganj on the same day, which was written by Yash Narayan Sharma (PW14) and registered Crime no.191/1988 for the offence punishable under Ss. 341, 294, 324, 323 and 34 of the IPC and investigated the matter. Police sent Ram Gopal, Dayashankar, Sampat Kumar and Yashoda for medical examination, where Dr. Chandrika Prasad Dwivedi (PW1) examined them and gave MLC reports (Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-4) respectively. Further investigation was conducted by Brij Narayan Dwivedi (PW-16), he recorded the case diary statements of prosecution witnesses Sampat Kumar (PW-7), Daya Shankar (PW-8), Yashoda (PW-9), Laxman Prasad (PW3), Jhadu (PW4) Ramjivan (PW-10), Ramvishal (PW-12) and Maksudan (PW-13) also prepared spot map (Ex.P-9). On 2/11/1988 Ram Gopal died due to the injuries sustained by him in the incident during treatment in the hospital. Maksudan (PW-13) lodged the report (Ex.P-12) in this regard at PS Mauganj. On that report, Brij Narayan Dwivedi (PW- 16) went to the hospital and prepared an inquest memo (Ex.P-10) of the dead body of deceased Ram Gopal. He also registered inquest no.39/1988 (Ex.P-17) at P.S. Mauganj and sent the dead body of Ram Gopal for postmortem along with the application (Ex.P-5A), where Dr. Chandrika Prasad Dwivedi (PW-1) conducted the autopsy of the dead body of Ram Gopal and gave postmortem report (Ex.P-5). Police also arrested the appellants and co-accused and prepared arrest memos (Ex.P-19 to Ex.P- 22) and also seized one knife from the possession of appellant no.1 Dinesh, one stick from the possession of co-accused Shiv Prasad and prepared seizure memos (Ex.P-15 and P-16) and after investigation filed the charge sheet before Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mauganj. On that charge sheet, Criminal Case no.116/1989 was registered. Learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mauganj committed the case to the court of Session. On that, ST no.173/1990 was registered. Learned Ist ASJ, Rewa framed the charge against appellants Dinesh and Ramnaresh and co- accused Shiv Prasad, Hardayal and Sualal @ Rajmani for the offence punishable under Ss. 148, 302/149, 325/149, 324/149 and in alternate 324 of the IPC and 323/149 in alternate 323 of the IPC and tried the case. However, the appellants and co-accused persons abjured their guilt and took the defence that they are innocent and have falsely been implicated in the case. After trial, learned trial Court acquitted the co- accused Sualal and Hardayal from all the charges and only found appellants Dinesh Kumar, Ram Naresh and co-accused Shiv Prasad guilty for the aforesaid offences. Being aggrieved by that judgment, appellants filed this appeal.

(3.) It is pertinent to mention here that apart from appellant no.1 Dinesh Kumar and appellant no. 2 Ram Naresh, this appeal has also been filed by co-accused Shiv Prasad but during the pendency of this appeal, Shiv Prasad died, so this Court vide order dtd. 15/12/2021 abated the appeal against co-accused Shiv Prasad. Therefore, this judgement is only confined up to appellant no.1 Dinesh Kumar and appellant no.2 Ram Naresh.