SITA RAM JHA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE three appellants in both the appeals stated above stand convicted by the 1 st Additional Sessions Judge of Sitamarhi in Sessions Trial No. 263 of 1988 under Section 302 read with Section 34 and Section 447 of the Indian Penal Code (in short the "Code") and have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and rigorous imprisonment for one year respectively. Appellant No. 2 Surat Jha alias Ram Surat Jha (hereinafter to be referred to as Surat Jha) in criminal appeal No. 351 of 1990 has been further convicted under Section 323 of the Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. The sentences of all the appellants have been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) THE prosecution case, as disclosed in the first information report/ fardbeyan (Ext. 4) of deceased Ram Naresh Jha of village Baradih within Runnisaidpur Police Station in the district of Sitamarhi recorded at 5 p.m. on 23.4.1988 at Athri Primary Health Centre (P.H.C.). is that on that day at about 1 in the afternoon he was taking food at his darwaja when appellant Sita Ram Jha arrived at the nearby well with his she - buffalo and started bathing the animal very close to the well so that the waste water started finding its way into the well. Consequently, the deceased protested and it led to some altercation. In the meantime, appellants Behari Jha and Surat Jha. accompanied by Pawan Jha son of appellant Behari Jha arrived there armed with a spear. a lathi and an iron rod respectively. They went to the darwaja of the deceased and stalled the abusing him. Appellant Behari Jha threw him on ground. As a result he fell down on a wooden log kept there and sustained injuries. Thereafter appellant Behari Jha picked up the metal water pot (Iota) from the place where the deceased was taking food, caught the latter by his locks and inflicted a few blows therewith on neck and scapula. When appellant Behari Jha freed the deceased appellant Sita Ram Jha struck him with lathi on his neck. At about the same time PW 2 Baleshwar Jha. the younger brother of the deceased, present at his kolhuar (place where sugarcane is crushed and Gur is prepared) arrived there and protested. Consequently, he was assaulted by appellant Surat Jha and co -accused Pawan Jha.

(3.) LATER on. both the injured were taken to P.H.C. at Athri on a bullock -cart, where they were treated and first information report of the deceased was recorded by Sub -Inspector Md. Kalimuzzama of Runnisaidpur Police Station (C.W. 2) and investigation followed. Both the injured were examined on the same day by PW 6 Doctor Narendra Prasad Misra of P.H.C. at Athri. Later on. the deceased was transferred to medical college hospital at Muzaffarpur where he died on 12.5.1988. His autopsy was held by Doctor Mumtaj Ahmad of S.K. Medical College, Muzaffarpur (C.W. 1) according to whom, the deceased had died due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of the ante mortem injuries found on his person. On such facts, these appellants were put on trial on charge under Section 302 read with Section 34, Section 447 and Section 504 of the Code. Appellant Surat Jha was further charged under Section 323 of the Code for voluntarily causing hurt to PW 2 Baleshwar Jha. As Pawan Jha was found to be a juvenile, his case was separated from that of these appellants for being tried by a juvenile Court in accordance with the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986.