SHYAM LAL CHOUDHARY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants and learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State.

(2.) All these appellants have been convicted under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Appellant No. 1, Shyam Lal Chaudhary, has further been found guilty for an offence under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months. However, the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

(3.) Prosecution case, as disclosed in the fardbeyan (Ext. 6) of Meena Kumari (PW 1), briefly stated is that in the evening of 24.2.1985 at about 5.00 p.m., while he father Raghunath Chaudhary, the deceased, was giving fodder to his cattle after returning from Hathua Bazar, and at the time, the informant (PW 1), her sister Lakhpatia Kumari (PW 3) and her brother, Manager Chaudhary (PW 2) were cutting fodder in the bathan, the accused persons, namely, Sundar (appellant No. 3) armed with farsa and the rest were armed with lathi, came there and started assaulting her father and when she tried to rescue her father, she was also assaulted by accused Shyam Lal Chaudhary (appellant No. 1) with lathi, whereas her sister (PW 3) was assaulted by appellant No. 2, Jagarnath Chaudhary, with lathi. On hulla being raised, the villagers came there and the accused-persons fled away. It is further alleged that her injured father, the deceased, disclosed the names of these appellants and other accused-persons before the villagers, namely, Jeut, Banshi Chaudhary (PW 7) and Darogi. According to the informant, the genesis of the occurrence appears to be on account of attempt to molest her sister, Lakhpatia (PW 3), by appellant No. 2, Jagarnath Chaudhary, and when the same was objected to by the father of the informant, there was altercation with them, which led to this occurrence. The informant (PW 1) along wither her injured father went to Hathua Hospital, where her father succumbed to the injuries in the early morning and there her fardbeyan (Ext. 6) was recorded by PW 10 on 25.2.1985 at about 10.20 a.m.