GOHAL YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CRIMINAL Appeal No. 341 of 2000 and Cr. Appeal No. 362 of 2000 arise of same judgment have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) THE appellants Shankar Yadav and Rijhan Yadav have been convicted u/s. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to undergo for life imprisonment. They are further convicted u/s. 201 of the the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to undergo R.I. for two years. They are further convicted u/s. 34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to undergo R.I. for one month. They are also sentenced to undergo R.I. for two years u/s. 27 of the Arms Act. The appellants Kaleshwar Yadav and Gohal Yadav were sentenced to undergo R.I. for life imprisonment u/s. 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and also R.I. for two years u/s. 201 of the Indian Penal Code and R.I. for one month u/s. 341 of the Indian Penal Code. They are further convicted u/s. 25 of the Arms Act and were sentenced to undergo R.I. for two years. However, all the sentences of the four appellants were ordered to run concurrently.

(3.) ), Kirani Yadav (P.W. 2) and Shiv Khelawan Yadav(RW. 6) also came there and saw the alleged occurrence. It has further been alleged that the accused persons confined the informant till late night and due to late night the informant and the other witnesses could not go anywhere in the night and in the next morning, they started searching of the dead body of Haribansh Yadav with the help of other persons. But the dead body could not be recovered. Thereafter, the informant reported the matter to the concerned police. 4 The motive of the occurrence according to prosecution was that one month prior to the alleged occurrence the deceased Haribansh Yadav assaulted with one and two sticks to the accused Rijhan Yadav for damaging his crops by his cattle as such due to that occurrence the accused persons are said to have committed the murder of the son of the in formant Ram Chandra Yadav. On the basis of the fardbeyan of the informant Barahiya RS. case No. 55 of 1996 was registered against the accused persons under Ss. 341, 302/34 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code and also u/s. 27 of the Arms Act. Thereafter, a formal F.I.R. (Ext. 5) was also drawn up. After completion of investigation, charge -sheet was submitted against the accused persons showing accused Shankar Yadav was declared absconder. On the basis of the charge -sheet, the learned Magistrate took cognizance of the offence and committed the case to the court of Sessions ultimately the trial concluded with the result as indicated above. The defence of the accused persons appears from the trend of the cross -examination of ail the prosecution witnesses and the statements of the accused persons recorded u/s. 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that there is total denial of the murder of the son of the informant as alleged and the defence of the accused persons is also that the appellants are innocent and have been falsely implicated in this case due to previous enmity. The defence of the accused persons is also that the son of the informant Ram Chandra Yadav was traceless about 26 days before the alleged occurrence and was murdered by other culprits somewhere else. The prosecution in support of its case has also examined altogether eight witnesses.