BINDESHWAR YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two appeals arise out of judgment dated the 15th of April, 1991, passed by the learned 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Gaya in Sessions Trial No. 38 of 1989/259 of 1986 by which the six appellants of the two appeals were held guilty of committing offence under Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code and each of them was directed to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) AS per the Fardbeyan of P.W. 5 Ram Saroj Sharma, while he and his family members were sitting at his Darwaja, at about 09.00 p.m., 20 -25 dacoits came there and surrounded him and others. He identified the accused persons named in the First Information Report including appellant Bindeshwar Yadav and Sukhu Yadav. It was stated that the dacoits by putting gun on the chest of the informant was asking him to show the properties. Some of them entered inside the lady section of the house and some of them kept surrounding the informant and others and also kept assaulting him and others. It was stated that dacoit Raj Kumar Singh was stating that Punjabi had come which statement was rejoined by P.W. 3 Shrikant Sharma who also stated that he too was a Punjabi upon which accused Raj Kumar Sharma fired a shot causing injuries to P.W. 3. The properties of the house were plundered and the lady inmates of the house were also assaulted. It is stated that one Ram Nandan Singh came to resist the dacoits and he was shot dead. The informant appended a list of properties which were looted away and that list included a gun belonging to the informant's family.

(3.) DURING the course of the trial, 13 witnesses were examined out of whom P.W. 9 Suresh Sharma was a witness of formal character with P.W. 10 Hardeo Singh who had signed the inquest report as a witness. P.Ws. 11, 12 and 13 were also formal witnesses having witnessed one part of the occurrence or the other or had tendered one document or the other in evidence. So far as the remaining witnesses were concerned, P.W. 1 Ramanuj Sharma, P.W. 2 Kaushlendra Kumar Sharma, P.W. 3 Shrikant Sharma who was injured in the incident, P.W. 4 Ramakant Sharma and P.W. 5 Ram Saroj Sharma all family members amongst them came forward to support the factum of dacoity, participation of the accused named in the First Information Report besides identification of some other accused persons in the Test Identification Parade. P.W. 6 Ram Pyari Devi, P.W. 7 Bimla Kumari and P.W. 8 Manmati Devi had not identified any accused persons and as such they had not named any of the dacoits in their evidence in Court. In fact P.W. 8 Manmati Devi stated that she was not present in the house in the night of the dacoity and that she was in her parents house.