STATE OF BIHAR Vs. SHAMBHU MANDAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Government has appealed against the judgment and order of acquittal dated 21st September, 1990 passed by Shri Ram Nath Prasad, Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Madhepura passed in G.R. Case Mo. 306 of 1986/Tr. No. 94 of 1990.

(2.) The solitary Respondent was accused of having driven the jeep bearing registration number BHM 9491 on 13.4.1986 and thereby to have knocked down and further to have run over one Maksood Alam, a child of over ten years, who was the Son of P.W. 5 Anwar Manir Azad. The further story was that when the accident took place, the informant and others who were sitting at a tea stall, put a wooden bench across the road and also signalled the driver to stop but in spite of the hurdle put across the road, the Respondent was sped away with the vehicle and in that process, broke the wooden bench to pieces which was put as a hurdle in the drive way of the vehicle. It was stated by P.W. 6, the informant of the case, namely, Kailash Prasad Jaiswal that he along with others, who were there, rode on a truck to chase the vehicle and lastly, the vehicle could be located somewhere abandoned by the side of the road at Chausa. The driver of the vehicle including the passengers, some of whom were travelling atop the jeep, were not found there. The jeep was pushed down to Chausa bus stop and the matter was reported to the police. This was how the FIR (Ext.-1) of Chausa P.S. Case No. 28 of 1986 was registered by P.W. 8 SI Suresh Chandra Mishra, who himself took up the investigation.

(3.) On consideration of the evidence of P.W. 8, what is found is that when he reached at the place of occurrence, he found the dead body lying by the side of the road, which was about 10 ft. wide. He found the dead body lying at a distance of about 200 yards from the chowk, where, as per the informant, the tea stall was located. He found flank of the road dusty on its western side and the marks of the wheels were apparently visible at the place where the dead body was found lying. P,W. 8 further found that about 200 yards south of the chowk, the wooden bench of the shop was broken into pieces. P.W. 8 held the inquest and sent the dead body for postmortem examination.