JIWAN CHALAK Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused-appellant has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code for committing the murder of his younger brother Julus Chalak in furtherance as the common intention with the absconding accused Suru Chalak alias Suresh Chalak.

(2.) The prosecution story in brief is that the accused-appellant, the deceased and the absconding accused Suru Chalak alias Suresh Chalak were own brothers. Their parents were the employees of Tisco Ltd. at Jamshedpur. Because of paralysis, the father had to take voluntary retirement and in his place, one of the brothers had been appointed in the Tisco Ltd. on compassionate ground. On mother's retirement, another brother had also been appointed on compassionate ground at Tisco Ltd. but the deceased Julus Chalak who happened to be the youngest but he remained unemployed. The parents started living with the deceased while other two brothers had also been separated in the same house during the life time of the parents. During the leaving of service by the father, he got the amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- from his employer, Le. Tisco Ltd. and the same was deposited in the Bank. After the death, out of that amount Rs. 40,000/- was spent towards funeral i.e. Sradh ceremony and Rs. 60,000/- remained in the Bank. After the death of the parents, some dispute arose regarding the amount of Rs. 60,000/- which was kept in the Bank left by the father of the parties. A Panchayati was held and therein it was decided that out of that Rs. 40,000/- should go in favour of the deceased Julus Chalak as he had not get any appointment, while the two other elder brothers, i.e. the accused appellant Jiban Chalak and the absconding accused Suru Chalak alias Suresh Chalak had been appointed in the place of their father and mother respectively on compassionate ground. The rest amount of Rs. 20,000/- was decided to be paid half and half to the accused-appellant Jiban Chalak and the absconding accused Suru alias Suresh Chalak. For the time being, the dispute was stopped but it is a case of the prosecution that afterwards the two brothers started pressing on the deceased to equally divide the whole of Rs. 60,000/- in favour of all the three brothers which the deceased Julus Chalak did not agree. It is the allegation that on the date of occurrence, i.e. on 5.7.1987 in the noon hours, the deceased Julus Chalak came home in drunken state and went to bath room and asked for his wearing apparels from his wife-informant PW 4 Karuna Chalak. There was some delay on the part of his wife to supply dhoti to the deceased at which he started abusing. The accused-appellant and the other brother Suru alias Suresh Chalak thought that the deceased was abusing them and at this, both of them dragged out the deceased from the bath room and it was alleged that the absconding accused Suru Chalak alias Suresh Chalak had dealt with a dagger blow on the abdomen of the deceased and also rounded it. The other accused, i.e. accused-appellant Jiban Chalak came at that time, caught hold of the deceased and afterwards he had also assaulted him by means of knife. The wife of the deceased raised hulla and the neighbouring people came. Some of them took the deceased who was in the injured condition as there was profused bleeding to Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur. but when he was brought there, he was declared dead. On that very date in the evening hours at about 5.30 p.m., PW 4 (Karuna Chalak) lodged information with Sonari Police Station and her fardbeyan (Ext. 3) was recorded and bears her signature which has been marked as Ext. 1/8 before the trial Court. In the fardbeyan she gave the vivid description as to how the occurrence took place together with the genesis for which incident had occurred. Both the accused persons had been arrested. The dead body of Julus Chalak had been inquested and sent for post-mortem examination through chalan. Blood-stained earth was seized from the place of occurrence which was nothing but the aagan in front of the house of all the three brothers. The incriminating weapon, Le. dagger was also seized from the house of the absconding accused Suru alias Suresh Chalak. On autopsy, death was caused due to the injuries caused on the abdomen, although some other injuries were also there. After closure of investigation, charge-sheet was submitted under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code against both the brothers, namely, Jiban Chalak and Suresh Chalak. On being committed to sessions, charge was framed under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code vide order dated 16.9.1989 before the trial Court and when the charge was read over and explained to ,the accused persons, they pleaded not guilty. The defence case is of simple denial of the prosecution case and as per the trend of the cross-examination and the statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code) it appears that defence case is of false implication.

(3.) For and on behalf of the prosecution, as many as eight witnesses have been examined, out of them, the star witness of the prosecution is PW 4 Karuna Chalak, who happened to be the informant and sole eye-witness to the occurrence. PW 1 Sushil Kumar Tripathi, PW 2 Prakash Sahu, PW 3 Surya Narayan and PW 5 Manohar Patel came to the place of occurrence after hearing the cries raised by PW 4 Karuna Chalak. Although they have not seen the actual assault on the person of the deceased but they have supported the case of the prosecution to the effect that the deceased Julus Chalak was lying in the aagan with profused bleeding and having injuries on his abdomen and face. PW 1 is also a witness to the inquest held by the Investigating Officer and also a witness to the seizure of the blood stained earth. PW 2 came to the place of occurrence on hearing hulla and saw the deceased in injured condition. He has not stated as to the reporting of PW 4 regarding the names of the assailants. Same is the case with PW 3 Surya Narayan and PW 5 Manohar Patel. PW 3 Surya Narayan has been declared hostile as he has not supported the prosecution case regarding reporting of the names of the assailants. PW 6 Dr. D.B. Sarangi is an Associate Professor of the Tata Main Hospital, who held post-mortem over the dead body of the deceased Julus Chalak and found the following injuries on his person :