NAURATTAM MANI MISHRA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SEVENTEEN accused persons were put on trial in Sessions Trial No. 307 of 1994 / 75 of 2004, out of whom three appellants of Cr. Appeal No. 1002 of 2006, namely, Narottam Mani Mishra, Dadan Misha alias Rakesh Mani Mishra and Niraj Mishra were charged along with the deceased accused Krishna Mishra alias Krishna Nandan Mishra under section 302 of the IPC and section 27 of the Arms Act. Thirteen other accused, including the ten appellants of Cr. Appeal No. 906 of 2006, were charged under section 302/149 of the IPC. Accused Chandra Bhushan Mishra alias Malik Mishra, Bamdeo Mishra and Purushottam Mishra as also Krishnan Nandan Mishra died during the pendency of the trial and the proceedings as against them were dropped, as may appear from paragraph 17 of the impugned judgment.

(2.) THE charges related to an occurrence dated 24th May, 1994 in which Munindra Prasad was killed, allegedly by the accused persons, i.e., the accused of Chanpatia P.S. Case no. 74 of 1994. THE judgment was delivered by the learned Presiding officer-cum-Additional Sessions 3 Judge, FTC- V, Bettiah (West Champaran) on 4.9.2006 by which the appellants Narottam Mishra, Dadan Mishra alias Rakesh Mani Mishra and Neeraj Mishra of Cr. Appeal No. 1002 of 2006 were found guilty of committing offence under section 302 of the IPC and each of them was directed to suffer R.I. for life as also to pay a fine of rupees ten thousand each. THE above named appellants were acquitted of the charge under section 27 of the Arms Act. No substantive sentence in lieu of fine imposed, in case of the same not being paid, appears passed by the learned trial judge against any of the appellants in both the appeals. THE ten appellants of Cr. Appeal No. 906 of 2006 were found guilty of committing an offence under sections 302/149 of the IPC and each of them were directed to suffer R.I. for life and was also directed to pay a fine of rupees ten thousand each. Again, in their case also, there was no direction by the court as to what term of substantive sentence each of the ten appellants could suffer in case of non-payment of fine.

(3.) IT appears from the evidence of P.W. 12 S.I. Bharat Ram that he was transferred immediately after the occurrence from Town Police station, Bettiah to Chanpatia Police station on 4.5.1994 on account of the incident and joined his new assignment at Chanpatia at 12.30 P.M. He received the fardbeyan (Ext. 1) of the informant P.W. 4 Kshemendra Kumar, which was in the writing of S.I. Ramesh Chandra Upadhayay (P.W. 9) and on that basis he drew up the FIR (Ext. 6) and took up the investigation. He went to the place of occurrence and inspected the same in presence of P.W. 2 Gena Raut. IT was a field situated contiguous south of the village road, which was further south of the village. In fact, he had not found the dead body, but he found blood in the field. The road which was contiguous north of the field was going from the village Puraina Mian tola to Chanpatia bazaar from east to west. The place where the blood stains were found, was about fifty yards east of the orchard of Malik Mishra and further one hundred yards east of that orchard was situated the FCI godown and its premises. The house of the deceased Mukhia was 1 K.M. west of the place of occurrence and there were fields of persons all around the P.O. field. IT appears from the description given by P.W. 12 that the dead body of the unknown accused was also found somewhere at the same place of occurrence. P.W. 12 had learnt that the dead body was sent after preparation of the inquest report for postmortem examination to M J K Hospital, Bettiah and the blood which was found at the place of occurrence had also been seized before his arrival by one ASI.