(1.) The judgment in this appeal shall also govern the disposal of Criminal Appeal No 949 of 1981 (The State of Madhya Pradesh v. Ashok Kumar and seven others).
(2.) Initially, eight accused were prosecuted for offences under Sections 147, 307, 307/149, 325 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code for an incident, as disclosed from the first information report Ex. P-1, at 1-15 A.M. on the 1st November, 1980, at a place called Chatti near Lakhnadon, on the National Highway, No. 7, commonly known as Nagpur-Jabalpur Road. It is alleged by the prosecution that the accused persons having formed an unlawful assembly and in prosecution of the common object, attempted to commit the murder of Raj Kumar (P.W. 2) or voluntarily caused grievous hurt to him and also voluntarily caused hurt to Ashot Kumar (P.W. 1) and Shankarlal (P.W. 3). It is not disputed that the accused persons are related to each others. It is also not in dispute that the accused Shiv Lal runs a hotel which adjoins the hotel of Shankarlal (P.W. 3) and acrosS the Highway, opposite the hotel of Shankarlal (P.W. 3) is the hotel of Rajkumar (P.W. 2), who is the brother of Shankarlal (P.W. 3). Ashok Kumar (P.W. 1) is the nephew of Shankarlal (P.W. 3).
(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that a little prior to the incident, Tamsingh (P.W.8) had come to sell cart-load of firewood and sold the same to Raj Kumar (P.W. 2) While Tam Singh (P.W. 8) was unloading the firewood, a servant of the hotel of the accused persons came and called Tamsingh (P.W. 8), who, after unloading, went to the hotel of the accused Shivlal where the accused Tulsiram told him that since there was a balance of Rs. 5/- outstanding against him, Tamsingh (P.W. 8) should not have sold the firewood to Rajkumar (P.W. 2) before paying it. Tamsingh (P.W. 8) stated that he would pay the amount in the morning and in the event, accused Tulsiram requires firewood, he would sell another, cart-load to him. This led toaltercation, leading to the accused Tulsiram and the accused Sunil Kumar hurling abuses to Raj Kumar (P.W. 2). Since Ashok Kumar (P.W. 1) failed to pacify the accused Tulsiram and Sunil Kumar, this witness called Shankarlal (P.W. 3). The other accused persons also arrived in the meanwhile, which led to a fight between the accused persons and the complainants. It is further alleged by the prosecution that the accused Tulsiram had a wooden stick fitted with pointed iron while the accused Sunil Kumar had with him iron rod with Barchi on it. The accused Shivlal carried a lathi and the remaining accused persons, namely, Santosh, Arun Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Chandrakant and Tarachand had iron rods with them. It is further the case of the prosecution that these accused persons assembled in front of the hotel of Rajkumar (P.W. 2) and commenced assault on the complainants. The incident was witnessed by Goverdhan (P.W. 4) Nike (P.W. 5) Atahar (P.W. 6) and Ganaram (P.W. 7), apart from Ashok Kumar (P.W. 1), Rajkumar (P.W. 2), Shankarlal (P.W. 3) and Tamsingh (P.W.8), who were actually involved in the incident. The report of the incident was lodged by Ashok Kumar (P.W. 1) who was accompanied by Shankarlal (P.W. 3) vide Ex. P-I, within half an hour of the incident at the Police Station Lakhnadon, which was recorded by S.B. Tiwari (P.W.10), who proceeded to the spot of incident and effected yarious seizures of articles vide Exs. P. 8 p.9 and p10 and also seized: (i) from the person of the accused Tulsiram a bush.shirt vide Ex. poll, (ii) from the person of the accused Chandrakant a bush-shirt vide Ex. P.12, and arranged for the medical examination of the injured persons.