CHULHAN RAI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AII these four criminal appeals arise out of of the same occurrence dated 27.02.2004 leading to institution of Sonepur P.S Case no. 18 of 2004 but two separate Sessions Trial namely, Sessions Trial No. 567 of 2004 against the appellant Chulhan Rai, Bali Ram Rai and Jhulan Rai and Sessions Trial No. 904 of 2005 against the appellant Anil Rai ending with two separate judgments of conviction and sentence dated 20.01.2006 and 21.04.2006 respectively, whereby and whereunder, all the aforesaid appellants have been convicted for offence under section 302/149 and 148 of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 27 of the Arms Act and have been sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for life for offence under section 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code as also for three years Rigorous Imprisonment for offerice under section 148 of the Indian Penal Code and further to also undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for seven years for offence under section 27 of the Arms Act. All the sentences are however to run concurrently.

(2.) The prosecution case as set out by Dharmendra Kumar Rai in his Fard Beyan before the police at 11.45 P.M. on 27.2.2004 is that at about 8.30 P.M. on the same day i.e. 27.2.2004 when he alongwith his other family members including his deceased father Sudarshan Prasad Rai were going to their home on a Tempo, they were intercepted by five persons on motorcycle and 4-5 on foot and among motorcycle riders Jhulan Rai, Anil Rai, Sanjay Rai, Umesh Kumar Rai and Baliram Rai, armed with rifle and pistols, had got their tempo stopped, whereafter they had dragged out his father Sudarshan Prasad Rai from the tempo and Jhulan Rai, Anil Rai and Sanjay Rai thereafter had caused one fire arm injury each on his, as a result whereof his father had fell down on account of bleeding injuries in his head and stomach. It is said that Umesh Rai and Baliram Rai and other 4-5 unknown persons, who were on foot, had also threatened the informant and others with fire arms in their hands and had asked them to run away failing which they too would be done to death by them. In the Fard Beyan the motive for such assault on the father of the informant is said to be threat given by his father for getting them apprehended by the police. The informant has also claimed that after the accused persons had gone away from the place of occurrence he had seen his father desperate in pain and on hulia made by the informant when a few villagers had assembled, he could with their help proceed to patna for treatment of his injured father but he had succumbed to his injuries in the way to Patna and as such, he had returned back with the dead body of his father to Sonepur Police Station where his Fard Beyan was recorded at 11:45 pm on 27.02.2004 itself.

(3.) From the reading of the First Information Report it would thus be clear that the informant did not name any of his family members as eye witnesses who were allegedly accompanying him and his father in the tempo and had witnessed the occurrence alongwith the informant. The police, however, after completing investigation had submitted a charge sheet against Anil Rai, Baliram Rai, Chulhan Rai and Jhulan Rai as well as one Sanjay Rai, whereafter the case was committed to the court of Sessions on 7.8.2004 in the case of Jhulan Rai, Chulhand Rai and Baliram Rai and 19.12.2005 against the appellant Anil Rai. Sanjay Rai, however, was never apprehended and having been declared absconder his trial has not been held as yet. All the appellants were charged for committing offence under Section 302/34 and 148 I.P.C as well as under Section 27 Arms Act for committing murder of Sudarshan Prasad Rai, the father of the informant Dharmendra Kumar Rai.