JANAK Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal Nos. 162/94R; 175/94R, 177/94R and 157/94R were taken up together as all these appellants had arisen from the common judgment of conviction passed by Sri R.C. Sathi, Sessions Judge, Gumla, in Sessions Trial No. 6/93 through which all these appellants were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 302/34 IPC. This common judgment will dispose of all these four appeals.

(2.) Criminal Appeal No. 162/94R had been preferred by Janak @ Ram Janak Sao; Criminal Appeal No. 175/94R had been preferred by Indrajit Sao and similarly in Criminal Appeal No. 177/94 and 157/94R Sheodayai Sao and Ghuran Sao are the appellants.

(3.) The prosecution case, in short, is that the informant Phaiju Mahto of village Murkunda within Gurala P.S. in the evening of 9-10-1992 along with his son Rambriksh Mahto had gone to neighbouring village Tirra in the house of Gajendra Mahto (PW 7), the son-in-law of Rambriksh and they stayed there in the night. It has been alleged that on the next day, that is, on 10-10-199.2 at about 4-30 a.m., both of them left in a scooter for their home village Bhurkunda and Rambriksh was driving the scooters whereas the informant was sitting behind and when they reached Bhurkunda village near the bari of one Bali Sao, then all of a sudden Indrajit Sao the appellant came from a bush and asked his son who was Sarpanch to stop the vehicle. Accordingly, Rambriksh stopped the scooter. It is also the prosecution case that in the meantime, other appellants armed with tangi, balua, lathi etc. came and they surrounded them. Then the informant got down form the scooter and first of all Indrajit Sao gave a Balua blow on the neck of Rambriksh and after that other appellants assaulted by tangi Bhujali and lathi on the neck, hand and other parts of the body. Then the informant escaped away from that place and rushed to his relation in village Tirra and informed about the occurrence and then the informant came again with his relations of Tirra and other villagers and found his son dead on the road and the scooter was also lying near the dead body. The motive for the occurrence had also been alleged by the informant that there was prior enmity between the appellants and the deceased regarding the bus-fare and fo'r that they committed the murder of the deceased.