SHASHI KUMAR SINGH SON OF LATE CHULAHAI SINGH, RESIDENT OF VILLAGE JOGIA LALGARH, P.S. SHYAMPUR BHATAHA, DISTRICT Vs. THE STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Four accused persons were put on trial after being charged with committing offence under Sec. 302/34 Penal Code by the learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Sitamarhi in Sessions Trial No.13 of 1991. The solitary appellant Shashi Kumar Singh was held guilty of committing offence under Sec. 302 Penal Code by judgment dated 28.08.1992 passed by the above said Court in the above said case while the three other accused persons, namely, Niranjan Singh, Shambhu Singh and Gagandeo Singh were acquitted of the charge they had been indicted with. Appellant Shashi Kumar Singh was heard on sentence on the same day and was directed to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life. He has appealed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence to this Court.

(2.) The deceased Raj Mangal Singh was the younger brother of the informant Bashist Narayan Singh. It was stated by Bashist Narayan Singh in his FIR that at about 9 P.M. in the night intervening 14/15th of July, 1990 Niranjan Singh (since acquitted) came to his house and informed the deceased Raj Mangal Singh that he was required to go to his house for having a glance of a postal document. As may appear from the evidence of P.W.2 Bashist Narayan Singh, the informant, the deceased Raj Mangal Singh was a postal peon and, as such, was the need, as per the prosecution story, of asking him to have a glance of a document. The deceased Raj Mangal Singh went to the house of the accused. The informant stated that after some while cries and shouts of deceased Raj Mangal Singh was heard by him and others as a result of which he along with P.W.3 Kedar Singh, P.W.5 Hari Shanker Singh and P.W.4 Gauri Shanker Singh and others went to the house of Niranjan Singh and found cries of deceased Raj Mangal Singh was emanating from the eastern room of the house. The informant and others claimed to have dismantle the window fixed in the eastern wall of the room and after flashing the torch light found that deceased Raj Mangal Singh was profusely bleeding and further that this appellant Shashi Kumar Singh was having a chhura stained with blood in his hand, while other accused persons were also carrying similar sort of weapons in their respective hands and they were standing in the very room. The informant claimed that the wearing apparels of the accused persons were also soaked with blood and as soon as the accused persons saw the informant and his companions they exitted from the room which was closed from inside whereafter the rods of the window were pulled out to create some space and deceased Raj Mangal Singh was taken out from there.

(3.) The informant, thereafter, stated another story that deceased Raj Mangal Singh had been salvaged from the room and he made a statement to him and others that after he had been taken to his house by Niranjan Singh, he himself stood in front of the door while appellant Shashi Kumar Singh closed the doors and windows of the room which made him suspicious about the intentions of the accused persons and he started shouting. But, three other accused persons, namely, Shambhu Singh, Gagandeo Singh and Shashi Kumar Singh captured the deceased and started giving chhura blows to him as a result of which he was seriously injured. The informant stated that when he and others were attempting to break the window of the house, this appellant Shashi Kumar Singh put off the lantern which was burning there and further stated that after having made the above statement, his brother started loosing his consciousness and further that the accused persons had exited from the room holding out threats that they will eliminate all his family members. The informant stated that he put his injured brother on a cot and started for the hospital, but when they had reached the place described as Lachchu Tola in the FIR, his brother breathed his last and further that the incident had occurred on account of old enmity between the parties.