BAIJU @ VIJAY Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal under Section 374 of Cr.P.C. has been filed against the judgment and sentence dated 15.02.2008 passed by Special Judge (MPDVPK Act), Shivpuri in Special Sessions Trial No.60/2004 thereby convicting the appellant under Section 365/34 of IPC and sentencing him for rigorous imprisonment of seven years and a fine of Rs.1,000/- with default imprisonment and under Section 364-A/34 of IPC and sentencing him for life imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000/- with default imprisonment. Both the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) Before adverting to the facts of the case, it is necessary to refer to certain important facts. Earlier the charge-sheet was filed against the appellant and the other co-accused persons namely Dayaram Gadariya, Rambabu Gadariya, Prakash Gadariya, Sobran Gadariya for offence under Sections 364-A, 365/34 of IPC and Section 11/13 of MPDVPK Act by showing him to be absconding. Accordingly, the warrants of arrest were issued. Later on, a report was submitted that the co-accused Sobran Singh has died on 06.01.2006. On 26.06.2006 the warrant of arrest issued against the appellant was received back with an information that the dead body of the present appellant has been received. The said report was submitted along with the postmortem report and the identification memo of the appellant and, accordingly, by order dated 26.06.2006, the Trial Court after relying upon the report of the police, held that the appellant has expired and accordingly his name was deleted from the charge-sheet. Thereafter, another report was submitted by the police to the effect that the co-accused Dayaram and Rambabu have also died. The report submitted by the police in respect of Dayaram and Rambabu was also accepted and the names of Dayaram and Rambabu were deleted from the charge-sheet. Subsequently, it was informed that in fact, the present appellant had not expired and he was lodged in Shivpuri jail and accordingly, on 01.11.2007 a supplementary charge-sheet was filed against the appellant for offence under Section 365, 364-A/34 of IPC and under Section 11/13 of MPDVPK Act. It is submitted by the counsel for the State that earlier the dead body of one dacoit was found in the forest area in a highly decomposed condition and because of one "mala" found on the dead body of said dacoit, it was identified that the dead body is of appellant. Although initially, it was mentioned by the police in the postmortem requisition form itself that for establishing the identification of the deceased, it is necessary to conduct the DNA report, but because of subsequent identification of the body, no DNA was conducted and on the basis of "mala", which was found on the dead body, one Jagram identified that it is the body of the present appellant. Under these circumstances, initially the police had filed the report that the appellant has expired. However, later on, it was found that in fact, the appellant is still alive and lodged in Shivpuri jail in connection with some other case, therefore, on 05.10.2017 permission was sought to formally arrest the appellant and accordingly, the supplementary charge-sheet was filed.

(3.) The necessary facts for the disposal of the present appeal in short are that on 07.03.2003 at about 01:00 in the night, when the abductees Badam Singh, Kalyan Singh, Veer Singh and Jaswant Singh were irrigating their field, then they were abducted by four miscreants along with Prakash and Gokul. As Prakash and Gokul were belonging to Dhobi caste, therefore, they were released by the dacoits, but abductee Badam Singh, Kalayan Singh, Veer Singh and Jaswant Singh were taken to the forest area, where they were kept in captivity for a period of one month and they were released after taking the ransom amount. The police after investigating the matter filed the charge-sheet against the appellant and other co-accused persons for offence under Sections 364-A, 365/34 of IPC read with Section 11/13 of MPDVPK Act. Initially, the charge-sheet was filed under Section 299 of Cr.P.C. and later on, it was found that the appellant was in Shivpuri Jail in connection with some other offence, therefore, a supplementary charge-sheet was filed as the appellant was earlier declared as dead.