PRATAP SAH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants above named have filed this appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 27th November, 1990 passed by the 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Bhagalpur in Sessions Case no. 157 of 1988 whereby both appellants have been found guilty for committing the offence punishable under Sections 302/34, 436, 148 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 27 of the Arms Act and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, rigorous imprisonment for 10 years, imprisonment for 3 years and rigorous imprisonment for 7 years respectively. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) The informant (PW 5) has filed Cr. Revision No. 112 of 1991 against the order of acquittal of opposite party nos. 2 to 9 who were tried along with the above named two appellants

(3.) The prosecution case was initiated at the behest of Kaushalya Devi (PW 5) the wife of the deceased, on the basis of her fard-beyan recorded by the S.I. Upendra Kumar (PW 11) on 26.1.1987 at 10.00AM at her house situated at village Sakrama, P.S.- Sanahaula, District-Bhagalpur. The prosecution case, briefly stated, is that in the night of 25.1.1987 at about 8.30-9.00PM, she, her husband and children after taking dinner were in the northern room of first floor of the house where her sister-in-law Manju Devi was also present. Hearing some sound from the south western side, her husband went on the roof and noticing 10-12 persons he came back in the room in which the informant and others were from before, bolted the door from inside and also stacked sacks containing paddy adjacent to the door. The miscreants tried their best to break open the door by removing the bricks by khanti and also opened fire. The informant and others kept themselves hidden and when the door was not opened, the miscreants set the door on fire after sprinkling kerosene oil and in the flame of fire, she and others present in the room identified Garib Sah, Pratap Sah, Shekhar Sah, Anil Sah, Nand Kishore Sah, Genu Paswan, Banka Yadav, Tunka Thakur @ Arjun Thakur, Sidheshwari Sah and Ganu Sah along with 8-9 unknown persons with pistols. She and her husband threw brick bats but the miscreants succeeded in entering into the room by breaking open the door and Pratap Sah fired on her husband at his chest then, he fell down and thereafter, Chandrashekhar Sah also fired at him on his chest. They also hit by butt of the pistol on the head of her sister-in-law causing injury to her, Nand Kishore Sah also fired which also hit on the head of the son of the informant Chaturi Sah. Cahndrashekhar Sah also opened fire which hit Rohit Sah who was on the road at that time and was also injured with Pellet. The miscreants scattered the articles kept in the house. The motive behind the occurrence is said that Shekhar Sah son of Garib Sah earlier had molested the sister-in-law of the informant 4 years back and the verdict of the panchayat was not obeyed by the accused persons. There was dacoity in the house of Garib Sah and due to enmity he falsely implicated the husband of the informant and in that dacoity Shekhar Sah was injured due to firing. They were suspecting that the husband of the informant was behind the same and to take revenge they were in search and due to that enmity they killed the husband of the informant and also injured others.