HIRALAL DAS Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PROSECUTION case without much of factual details, as has transpired in fardbeyan of Sahdeo Purbey and also narrations made by the witnesses at trial, was that in the intervening nights of 24.6.1992 and 25.6.1992 when house inmates were fast asleep in their houses, at the dead of night, unidentified miscreants having broken door planks of Post Office and also shop of Kari Purbey gained their access in inner apartment of house and shop and when villagers assembled and dared to resist them, lobbed bomb to scare villagers and began to retreat in the east. There too, they lobbed bomb near door of house of Shravan Purbey and made good their escape with booty. Pursuant to their retreat, while Raj Kumar Purbey was found dead on the road with gun shot injuries on his chest, other inmates of the house, namely, Ram Pari Devi was found writhing in pains for the injuries on her back and she too eventually succumbed to the injuries.

(2.) FARDBEYAN of Sahdeo Purbey (P.W. 3) was recorded by S.I. D.N. Singh at the house of the former at about 5 hours on 25.6.1992, pursuant to which first information report was drawn up and investigation commenced. In the process of collection of evidence during investigation, Police Officer took necessary steps for apprehension of the suspects, on their apprehension forwarded them to Court, recorded statement of house inmates and other witnesses who had shown familiarity with the incident in question, got autopsy held over the dead body of Raj Kumar Purbey and Ram Pari Devi by a medical board, arranged test identification parade, effected recovery of part of booty from possession of some of them and eventually on conclusion of investigation, submitted preliminary charge sheet in the Court against Nathu Sah, Bharat Yadav and Ganeshi Mahto. Pursuant to that, supplementary charge sheet was submitted against Rajdeo Yadav and Hiralal Das. It seems from the proceedings of the Court below that since Nathu Sah and Bharat Yadav did not participate in the proceeding, their cases were split up and trial, as such eventually commenced only against Ganeshi Mahto, Rajdeo Yadav and Hiralal Das who are Appellants before this Court.

(3.) SOME sort of common arguments on behalf of all the three Appellants were made at Bar and for some of them, there had been different plea also to assail the findings recorded by Court below, and before we bestow our due consideration to the lucid submissions canvassed at Bar, we prefer to notice evidences that had come on the record during trial suggesting incriminating evidence against the Appellants about their complicity in the commission of dacoity. We may begin our exercise with the evidence of Sahdeo Purbey (P.W. 3) who was the maker of fardbeyan and we must say that evidence of the informant, though there is reiteration of his earliest version on broad features of the prosecution case, appears to be most cryptic without much of details, which was stated by him in the first information report. However, evidence of this witness is of little significance, as though he was maker of fardbeyan, claiming himself to have identified the miscreants during commission of dacoity, he did not allege so at the trial. Now we may switch over to the evidence of Yadshodhar Purbey (P.W. 1), who States during trial that in course of commission of dacoity, when his son apprehended miscreants, who had robbed bomb on him, he was shot dead by other miscreants. Dacoity was committed also in the house of Kari Purbey, where miscreants having broken door planks, removed house belongings. Dacoits also shot dead wife of Gokul Purbey and caused injury to other family members by lobbing bomb. The witness, claims to have identified some of them in the flash of torch light and also identified them during test identification parade. In Court too, he claimed to have identified them. The Witness was quite emphatic that the miscreants had not concealed then identity during commission of dacoity. Ram Dayal Panjiyar (P.W. 2), the other witness was in the orchard, adjacent to the house of Yashodhar Purbey. He heard sound of explosion of bomb and rushed to the house of Sahdeo Purbey, when dacoits lobbed bomb on him and he had provident(sic) escape. Dacoities were committed also the shop of Kari Purbey when dacoity executed killing of son and mother of Sahdeo Purbey ' and caused injuries (sic) other family members. He claimed to his identified three of them in flash of to (sic) light, participated in test identification parade, identified them there, and also (sic) Court. Though Kari Purbey (P.W. 4) too(sic) happened to be house inmate but he was not at his house on the day of the dacoity and he stated to have simply learnt about the incident later on. Similar was the case of Shivji Purbey (P.W. 5), as though he testified about commission of dacoity in his house and also in the shop of Kari Purbey and also about killing of two house inmates, he did not claim to have identified miscreants.