BHASKAR RAO Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE judgment shall dispose of both the appeals, as these appeals have been preferred by the accused/appellants calling in question the legality of conviction and sentence imposed upon them by Second Additional sessions Judge, Burhanpur in Sessions Trial No. 13/96 whereby, the appellants have been convicted under Section 147 of I. P. C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 1 year and fine of Rs. 1000/- each in default, further rigorous imprisonment for 2 months. They also stand convicted for commission of offence u/s. 302 read with Section 149 of I. P. C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life and fine of Rs. 10,000/-each in default, further rigorous imprisonment for 2 years each. They have also been convicted U/s. 307 read with Section 149 of i. P. C. and sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs. 2000/- each and in default, further rigorous imprisonment for 4 months each. The substantive sentences were directed to run concurrently.

(2.) THE prosecution case in short is that on 30th May, 1994, elections of Gram panchayat were held at village Adgaon. ASI Shri T. K. Chouhan, PW-19 was posted on election duty with Zonal Officer Shri Vijay Koshla. After polling was over, counting of votes took place at about 7 p. m. and was completed by 10. 30 p. m. in the night Madhukar was declared elected defeating accused Devanand by margin of 16 votes. Devanand insisted the Zonal Officer Vijay Koshla for recount of the votes and upon recount, the result remained the same. Devanand did not accept the recounting and wanted the recounting; to be done by himself and through his agents. The elected candidate Madhukar went away at about 11 p. m. Thereafter, Devanand and his supporters did not permit the election party to move out of the counting place and started raising slogans. Devanand. caught hold of the ballot box and was not ready to permit its removal. His supporters gathered outside the polling booth and started raising slogans, near about 200 to 250 people assembled there. Considering the situation, the Zonal -Officer Vijay Koshla requested T. K. Chouhan PW-19 to call police reinforcement The police reinforcement reached the place of counting at 1. 00 O'clock in the night. Shri Kailash Pathrod, SHO of Police Station Shahpur reached the spot in order to rescue the election party along with three armed constables of SAF. On seeing the SHO arriving at the spot. Ramesh and others exhorted and started pelting stones upon them. Kailash Pathrod was surrounded by large number of persons and was done to death. Injuries were also caused to 6 police personnel. In self-defence, the firing was made by the police in which three rioters Gulab, Pandit and Bhimrao died. The autopsy was performed by Dr. M. P. Garg, PW-3, who submitted his report Ex. P/6. The injured were examined by Dr. K. M. Gupta pw-2. Dr. K. M. Gupta medically examined ASI T. K. Chouhan PW-19, Phoolchand Dwivedi, Bhagwan Singh, Constables of Police Station Shahpur, Vishnu Pandey and Rajaram of 1st Battalion, SAF and found injuries on their persons. Injury reports Ex. P/1 to Ex. P/5 were submitted by the doctor PW-2. The service revolver of Kailash Pathrod was snatched by accused Ramesh, Anil, Sunil and gyaneshwar. The service revolver was seized from the well at the instance of accused Ramesh pursuant to information memo Ex. P/10. It was seized vide seizure memo Ex. P/11. Blood stained "dhoti" of accused Ramesh was also seized vide seizure memo Ex. P/12. After due investigation, the accused were charge-sheeted.

(3.) THE accused abjured the guilt and contended that they have been falsely implicated due to election dispute.