VIJAY SAH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant calls in question the legality of the impugned judgment passed by Sri Daroga Prasad, 4th Additional Sessions Judge, Sitamarhi in Sessions Trial No. 318 of 1996 whereby he has held the appellant guilty under Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for two years.

(2.) The prosecution version which led to the trial of the appellant is as follows:

(3.) In between the night of 13th/14th March, 1996 when informant Sanjiv Kumar Tiwari (PW 5) was sleeping in his house in a room with his wife, he heard some commotion. His father opened the door. Some of the miscreants entered into the house and assaulted his father. The father of the informant ran away from the house. In the meantime, 5-6 dacoits entered into the room of the informant, among whom the informant identified one Nagendra Mandal of village Birpur Malkana. He was holding a Katta in his hand and others were holding iron rod etc. One of them told to kill the informant and his wife. The informant took out bamboo sticks of his mosquito net and chased them. The dacoits went away outside the door. He went to the door where he saw 5-7 more dacoits armed with Pistol, iron rod etc. He shut the door. The dacoits tried to open the door but could not succeed. On this, one of the dacoits went to the roof of the house and fired which hit the informant on his thigh. His mother tried tp save him when the dacoits again fired which hit his mother. The informant in order to save himself any how managed to go outside his house and raised alarm. Several villagers, namely, Shyamdeo Tiwary, Umesh Mandal, Raj Kishore Raut, Mahendra Tiwari, Ram Sanehi Tiwary and many others assembled there but no one dared to go near the dacoits. The informant was then taken to Sursand Hospital. After sometime the informant's father Ram Japan Tiwary, wife Mamta Devi, mother Sumitra Devi, grand mother Ram Peyari Devi who had also received injuries were brought to Sursand Hospital. The condition of the grand mother who had received fire arm injuries was serious. The dacoits looted away ornaments, cash etc. from the house of the informant.