ABDUL HASIB Vs. THE STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant Abdul Hasib has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to imprisonment for life and fine of Rs. 5000/- with default stipulation. The trial court has, however, acquitted co-accused persons, namely, Ali Noor, Sonab Ali and Islam Uddin of the same charge.

(2.) The victim of the incident was Manjoy, aged about 40 years.

(3.) According to the prosecution case, Manjoy was resident of village Suladewa falling within the jurisdiction of Police Station Patharkandi, District Karimganj. Malaya (PW-1) is wife of Manjoy and Aswini (PW-3) is her elder brother. On 24.01.2004, Manjoy had gone to attend Dashdewa Weekly Market about 1 km away from his house. Just before the market, near one shop of Jabbar, he was dragged by some persons of Muslim community belonging to village Patiala. But while being dragged, Manjoy somehow managed to free himself. He then picked up a wooden log and dealt a blow with it on the head of Allauddin. The blow resulted into the death of Allauddin. The same persons again caught hold of Manjoy and dragged him towards a tree. Since Aswini was sitting on a bench in front of the shop of Jabbar, he witnessed the incident. He also intervened to save Manjot, but was chased away. He, therefore, ran for home to inform Malaya and she on being told about the assault on her husband rushed to the place of occurrence. There, she pleaded the persons dragging Manjoy to release him, but they declined. One Abdul Noor even forcibly dragged Malaya back to her house. Later, Malaya came to know that Manjoy was beaten mercilessly after being fastened with a tree, due to which, he died around 3 p.m. Malaya made ejahar exhibit 2 at Police Station Patharkandi on 24.10.2004. In the ejahar, she mentioned that 40-50 persons were responsible for beating Manjoy. She however named four accused persons, including the appellant as his assailant.