HETLAL Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been preferred under Section 374 of the Code of criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Ist Additional Sessions Judge, Rewa in Sessions Trial no. 11/1988 convicting the appellants under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as 'the IPC), further convicting accused Hetlal and Ashwani Kumar under Section 323 of the IPC and directing them to suffer imprisonment of life under Section 302 read with section 34 of the IPC and one month R. I. under Section 323 of the IPC with the stipulation that both the sentences shall run concurrently.

(2.) THE facts shorn of unnecessary details, lie in a narrow compass. The field of the accused persons and that of Ram Sevak (hereinafter referred to as 'the deceased') are adjacent to each other. On the fateful day, i. e. , 9-11-1987 at 7 in the morning deceased's wife Choursiya along with her son ramji and daughter Kalpana were in their field and the accused was repairing the mound of the field. It is alleged that the accused persons threw the straws of millet in the field of the deceased and the deceased was collecting the said straws. It is said that at this juncture, accused Radhika along with the weapon 'akheni' (Sickle attached to long stick), accused Hetlal and Ashwani Kumar armed with lathi came and started beating the deceased. Hetlal gave a lathi blow on the person of the deceased, as a result of which he fled but he (Hetlal)chased him and inflicted another blow of lathi, as a consequence of which he fell down and thereafter accused persons Radhika and Ashwani Kumar gave blows by weapons 'akheni' and lathi respectively. These blows were dealt by them when the deceased was lying on the ground. On screaming by the wife of the deceased, accused Hetlal gave a lathi blow on her head and another blow was given on her shoulder. Upon hearing the hue and cry, one Pappu and his son Jawahar came to the spot and they were also beaten by the accused ashwani. It is the version of the prosecution that the accused Ashwani gave a lathi blow on the shoulder of Jawahar, eventually he fell down and thereafter all the three accused persons fled from the spot.

(3.) AFTER the departure of the accused persons, Kamta, Pannalal, ramsiya, Banshilal arrived at the spot and brought the deceased to Police chowki of Village Lal, where the wife of the deceased, namely, Choursiya lodged report which was registered at 'zero' number under Sections 447,323 read with Section 34 of the IPC and in this manner the criminal law in motion.