JATADHAR JHA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these two criminal appeals, there are 26 appellants who have been found guilty under Sections 147, 353, 323 and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo R.I. for one year under Sections 353 and 120(B) and six months under Sections 147 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code by the 2 nd Additional Sessions Judge, Madhubni in Sessions Trial No. 57/83. The appellants in these cases have not recently been in touch with the counsels appearing in these appeals as a result of which they are not in a position to inform this Court as to whether any of the appellants have died during pendency of the appeals.

(2.) This is a case of rioting in which a mob of 1400- 1500 persons had allegedly surrounded the house of Bhubneshwar Thakur and his brother Parmeshwar Thakur in order to commit loot for political reasons. The cause of the occurrence is that they wanted Comrade Sukhdev Sharma to be the Mukhiya which indicates that the appellants belonged to a particular party. The police when informed regarding collection of this mob of persons tried to control them by warning them to disperse and on failure resorted to firing which resulted in the death of six persons for which there is a counter case filed by Sakhi Chand Paswan, appellant no. 13 of Cr. Appeal (SJ) No. 349 of 2000.

(3.) Altogether 29 witnesses have been examined in these cases out of which P.Ws. 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 have been tendered for cross-examination, whereas P.Ws. 7, 11, 16, 25, 26 and 29 are formal witnesses in these cases. P.Ws. 22, 23 and 27 are the doctors, P.Ws. 15 and 24 are the Investigating Officers and P.W. 18 is the Magistrate. P.W. 22 has conducted the postmortem Ramu Sah, Bouna Devi, Kusum Paswan, Mahendra Mandal and Babu Lal Mandal whereas, P.W. 23 has conducted the postmortem of Kari Sah. P.W. 27 had examined the persons injured during the occurrence. The medical evidence indicates that the injured persons received simple injuries mostly because of brick batting resorted to by the mob.