RAJARAM YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE tiny village of Baghaura, some 9 Kms. south west of Madanpur Police Station of Aurangabad district, was scene of a carnage on the night of 29th May 1987 which left 26 persons including 6 women and 9 childern dead and a few houses reduced to ashes. 25 of the 26 persons killed belonged to one community and 20 of them were of the same family. The magnitude of the crime sent shock wave throughout the country and the village saw the visits in the next few days of Ministers, politicians and cine star. In connection with the incident 74 accused persons were charge-sheeted by the police under sections 147, 148, 302, 307, 324, 380, 411/149 and section 120-B of the Indian penal Code and put on trial before the learned Additional Sessions Judge. Eight of them i. e. Rajaram Yadav A-1, Babu Ram yadav A-2 were convicted u/ss. 302/34 and keshwar Yadav @ Ramkeshwar Yadav A-3, jag Narayan, Yadav A-4, Chintarnan Yadav a-5, Brahamdeo Yadav A-6, Chandradeep yadav A-7 and Ram Pravesh Yadav A-8 under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'i. P. C. ') and all of them were sentenced to death. They were also convicted under section 436/149 I. P. C. Appellant nos. 3 to 8 were further convicted under section 148 I. P. C. no separate sentence was, however, passed against the appellants for the said offences. The rest of the accused, 66 in all, were acquitted of the charges u/ss. 302 and 436 both read with section 149 I. P. C.

(2.) AGAINST the judgment/order dated 30. 9. 92/4. 11. 92 passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge appellant nos. 1 and 2 have preferred Criminal Appeal no. 460/92 and appellant nos. 3 to 8 Criminal Appeal no. 461/92 and the Death Reference no. 9 of 1992 has been made by the learned Additional Sessions judge for confirmation of the death sentence. Both the Criminal appeals and the death Reference have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(3.) BENGALI Prasad Singh (P. W. 25), Inspector of Madanpur p. S. left the police station at 11 p. m. on the date of incident on receiving information that fire had broken out in village Dalalchak and reached baghaura village at 11. 40 p. m. throuah dalalchak along with Rajiv Ranjan Singh, probationary Inspector of Police and umeshwar Prasad Sinha (P. W. . 21), Assistant inspector of Police and armed forces. Some armed force from police picket had already arrived at the scene of the occurrence P. W. 25 found the village on fire and with the help of other armed forces started extinguishing the fire. While giving round he saw a number of dead bodies and happened to meet the informant Raj Ballabh Singh (P. W. 13) and recorded his fard beyan at 1 a. m. on 30. 5. 87. The informant clalmed that he was looking after the tractor of his brother-in-law Byas Singh (deceased) which was driven by Kesho Singh (deed. ). As usual after working for the whole day they had kept the tractor near the house of Lakhan singh (P. W. . 19) and were asleep. At about 9. 15 p. m. the informant saw large number of persons armed with weapons coming from the south-west and surrounding the village. They started assaulting the Rajputs by entering into their houses in the village. The informant meanwhile fled towards the east and hid himself near the house of bhuiyas and saw the occurrence from there. He saw the Naxlites catching hold of gaya Singh (Decd.) and others near the banyan tree of his house and cut their necks by Fasuli etc. Thereafter they set the house of Rajputs on fire and shouted "we have taken the revenge of Chhechhani carnage". When the miscreants fled away towards the south shouting alogans, the informant returned to the place and saw that the Naxlites had killed his brother-in-law byas Singh and the driver Kesho Ram as also the family members of Sitaram Singh (decd.) and Trivani Singh (RW. 4 ). In the light of fire set to the houses the informant identified and named as many as 43 persons including appellants 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The informant clalmed that the Naxlites had taken revenge of Chechhani carnage because they did not kill any person or set any house on fire which did not belong to f. he members of the Rajput community.