SURESH CHANDRA YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The aforementioned appellants have been found guilty of the offence under section 144 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter to be referred to as the Code) and each one of them has been sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year under the said charge.

(2.) The appellants were put on trial along with other four accused for various charge punishable under section 436 and 452 of the Code. Appellant No. 1 Suresh Chandra Yadav was further charged for offences under section 436 read with section 109 of the Code and Appellant No.3 Genda Yadav was charged under section 436 of the Code on the allegation that he set fire to a dwelling house belonging to the informant (P.W. 7).

(3.) Short facts of the case are these. All the aforementioned appellants in the company of other four accused, namely, Lakhan Yadav, Siyaram Yadav, Raghubir Yadav and Siba alias Siban Mushar (all acquitted) being variously armed came to the house of the informant (P.W. 7) Bishwanath Mandai and intended to cause hurt to him and that in prosecution of the said common object of that unlawful assembly, appellant No.3 Genda Yadav on being instigated by appellant No.1 set fire to the dwelling house. It is the case of the prosecution that, when the mob reached the house of the informant (P.W. 7) shouting slogans for making an attack on him, the informant ran inside the house and bolted the room from inside. Further prosecution case is that attempts were made by the members of the unlawful assembly to break open the door in course of which some of them, as stated above, set fire to a thatched room attached to the house belonging to the informant. According to the prosecution, this room was used as a dwelling house.