PRAKASH Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals arise out of a Judgment dated November 18, 1980 of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Criminal Appeal No. 222 of 1977 (Prakash v. State of Madhya Pradesh) and Criminal Appeal No. 714 of 1976 (State of Madhya Pradesh v. Shibboo alias Shiv Narayan and two others). Criminal Appeal No. 222 of 1977 was preferred by the accused Prakash in the High Court of Madhya Pradash in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur against his conviction under section 302 IPC and sentence of life imprisonment in Session Trial No. 61/1974 in the Court of the First Additional Sessions Judge, Sagar Criminal Appeal No. 714 of 1976 was preferred by the State of Madhya Pradesh against the accused Shiv Narayan and the other two accused Vishnu Prasad and Raju alias Raja Ram against the order of acquittal passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sagar in Session Trial No.61 of 1974. It may be mentioned here that all the four accused persons were committed to sessions trial for the murder of one Vijay Singh on 14th February, 1974 but as accused Prakash became ill and could not be tried for long, the other three accused were tried and the aforesaid order of acquittal was passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Sagar. The accused Prakash was later on tried and he was convicted under section 302 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the said Vijay Singh. The Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur allowed the Criminal appeal No. 714 of 1976 preferred by the State of Madhya Pradesh against the order of acquittal in part inasmuch as the acquittal of Shiv Narayan was set aside and he was convicted under section 326 read with section 34 of the IPC and sentenced for imprisonment for the period already undergone in the jail. The acquittal of the other two accused namely Vishnu Prasad and Raju were affirmed and the appeal of the State against acquittal to that extent was disallowed. The appeal preferred by Prakash against his conviction under section 302 and sentence of life imprisonment was, however, dismissed and the order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge was affirmed by the High Court.

(2.) AGAINST the aforesaid Judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court convicting Prakash and Shiv Narayan, the said accused persons moved petitions for special leave to appeal giving rise to the present appeals viz. Criminal Appeals Nos. 7 and 8 of 1981.

(3.) IT is an admitted position that Kumari Geeta was in love with the deceased and the family members of Geeta including her father Shiv Narayan and uncle Prakash did not like the love affair. On the date of incident, Vijay Singh came to the school of Geeta and Geeta left the school in the company of Vijay and both of them went to different places including a temple. A number of love letters written by Geeta were also found in the pocket of the pant of the deceased which revealed that Kumari Geeta had love affair with Vijay and noticing that her family members did not like the relationship between the two and the deceased was likely to face trouble, she had advised Vijay to keep some weapon to protect himself.