GANESH MANJHI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KILLING spree that came in motion in the year 1995, continued unabated till 1997, when entire family of Uday Kant Jha would have been extinct, but for Raghubansh Prasad Jha (PW 7) who remained sole surviving member in the family to mourn death of his father and two brothers. His brother Pradip Kumar Jha was killed some times in the year 1995 and subsequent events which the family witnessed, happened in the year 1997, only after two years of the first incident, when both Uday Kant Jha and Ashok Jha were killed. Precisely, essential features of the prosecution case, from which these instant appeals stem, can be noticed with brevity. Sequence of events, of which horrendous act was a fall out, can be traced to an incident, when on 6.2.1997, Uday Kant Jha along with his son Ashok Jha had been to Godda to bring iron rods and stone chips for construction of house, on a bullock cart. As ill luck would have it, during return to their village, when they reached on outskirt of the village, the bullock cart got stuck in the sand, and for rescue, Uday Kant Jha came to his village, which was at insignificant distance, and having taken oxen of Masudan Bhagat put the bullock cart in motion and hardly he reached near house of Lallan Bhagat, to replace the oxen of Masudan Bhagat by oxen of his own, when Ranjan Mandal, Ramesh Mandal, Deva, Praduman Thakur, Garbhi Yadav, Deval Yadav, Dilip Yadav, Baskit Bhagat, Umesh Bhagat, Yogendra Bhagat, Shibbal Paraiya, Mannu Manjhi, Vijay Bhagat and Jaikant Sah holding guns, maskets and pistols emerged from nearby houses and surrounded Uday Kant Jha and Ashok Jha. It was deva, who set the ball in motion, firing first shot on Uday Kant Jha in his waist, and when Uday Kant Jha ran towards his house, he dropped injured near house of Masudan Bhagat.

(2.) IT was alleged that shortly thereafter Ranjan Mandal, Praduman Thakur, Deva, Dilip Yadav, Garbhi Yadav and Baskit Bhagat came chasing him, when Ranjan Mandal pumped bullet in his mouth followed by indiscriminate firing on him by others. When Ashok Jha ran for safety towards south, he too was chased by Ramesh Mandal, Umesh Bhagat, Yogendra Bhagat, Shibbal Paraiya, Mannu Manjhi, Vijay Bhagat, Jaikant Sah and Sikandar Kapri. Shibbal Paraiya took the lead and fired shots on the back of Ashok Jha when the later dropped injured, and assault was followed by Ramesh Mandal, who fired shots from his masket on him. Others too fired indiscriminate shots on Ashok Jha. Wife of Uday Kant Jha too had rushed to the place of occurrence on hearing sounds of firing. Long enmity was shown to be the genesis of the incident.

(3.) DEFENCE of the appellants had been that of innocence and they ascribed their false implication due to previous animosity, and as for killing of Uday Kant Jha and Ashok Jha, defence of the appellants was that they had many enemies, who were hostile to them, and possibility of their killing by them was quite probable. Praduman Thakur and Yogendra Bhagat also put defence of alibi to improbabilise their presence at the place of occurrence at the material time of incident. Defence of Praduman Thakur was that he was lecturer in Dhoraiya Degree College and was on duty at the relevant time of incident. Defence of Yogendra Bhagat too was quite similar, as it was pleaded on his behalf that he too was on duty in Godda Mahila College, where he was employed as Grade IV employee. The trial Court, however, on evaluating the probative value, and noticing intrinsic character of evidences, rejecting plea of innocence of the appellants, recorded verdict of guilt against the appellants under Section 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Though appellants suffered conviction also under Sections 120(B)/149, IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act, they were not sentenced on that count.