RAJESH JHA & ORS Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these appeals which have been directed against the order of conviction and sentence recorded by the IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Begusarai, in Sessions Case No. 122 of 1995, are being disposed of by this common judgment as they arise out of the same case.

(2.) All the four appellants have been convicted under Section 302/ 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprison- ment for life and they have further been convicted under Section 376/34 of the Indian Penal Code for which they have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years.

(3.) The case relates to most unfortunate incident in which a girl aged 13 years was criminally assaulted and was done to death by the culprits. The factual matrix of the prosecution case as disclosed in the fardbeyan (Exhibit 4) of the informant recorded at 7.30 p.m. at Bhagwanpur Police Station by SI Ram Sakal Mishra (PW 10) is that the victim, namely, Manju Kumari, the sister of the informant, had to collect leaf towards the east of the village and the informant, who returned back home from village Khodawandpur at 5.30 p.m. learned that the dead body of his sister is lying in sisbani, so, he went to the place of occurrence and found that his sister Manju Kumari is lying dead in a ditch and the salwar worn by her was thrashed into her mouth and there were marks of teeth bites at several places on her cheek. She was lying naked and there was swelling on her private parts. It appeared that some unknown persons committed rape and thereafter, murdered Manju Kmari by throttling her.