SHRAWAN THAKUR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Though the sole appellant Shrawan Thakur was charged under Sections 302, 307, 376 and 458 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter to be referred to as the Code) he on being tried was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 302 and acquitted of the charges under Sections 307, 376 and 458 of the Code.

(2.) None knew till the incident was put to an end that the unfortunate one year old child. Hassnain clinging to his mother Nisha Khatoon was predestined to be snatched away by the cruel hands of death from the lap of his mother in the fateful night intervening between the 13th and the 14th October, 1984. The facts of the case giving rise to the instant case may be set out for proper appraisal of evidence adduced on behalf of the prosecution. At about 2 a.m. in the night referred to above while the informant Rasul Azam was asleep at his Darwaza (Palani) attached to his house the appellant alongwith Raju, Babu Saheb and one unknown miscreant having armed themselves with guns and pistols went to him and they asked him about the whereabouts of his brother Akbar. He replied that he was sleeping inside the house whereupon the miscreants told him that they would kill him and he must not raise alarm. Soon one of the miscreants put gun on his chest while his associates entered into the house. Nisha Khatoon, wife of the informant hearing hue and cry came out of the house adhering to her child Hassnain and she started raising alarm. Just then the appellant opened fire upon her as a result of which she as well as her son Hassnain who was in her lap sustained gun shot injuries. The miscreants who entered into the house dragged Jhuni Khatoon out of her house and they alongwith the one who was standing and keeping watch over the informant Rasul Azam took her away into a sugercane field where, they sexually assaulted her. Before the miscreants caught hold of and dragged Jhuni Khatoon they had also apprehended the informants sister Sakina Khatoon who had concealed herself beneath a cot but she managed to escape and ran away out of her house.

(3.) The villagers including the informant set out in search of Jhuni Khatoon and they ultimately found her lying bewildered and perplexed virtually in the state of madness and unconsciousness in the sugarcane field of Jawahar Sah wherefrom she was brought to her house. Thereafter, the informant alongwith his wife Nisha Khatoon and son, victim Hassnain left for Chanpatia Hospital. The ill fated child succumbed to injuries on way to the hospital.