KUNDAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants in all the five appeals were tried together and convicted & sentenced in one trial and as such, all the aforesaid appeals were taken up together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) All the appellants by judgment dated 22-12-2014 passed in Sessions Trial No. 325 of 2012 (arising out of Jakkanpur P.S. Case No. 208 of 2011) were convicted for commission of offence under Section 302/149,144 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as 'I.P.C.') and Section 27 of the Arms Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as 'Arms Act'), whereas Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015), Kripa Shankar Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 301 of 2015) and Mantu Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 193 of 2015) were further held guilty for commission of offence under Section 307/34 of I.P.C. By order dated 03-01-2015, all the aforesaid appellants under Section 302/149 of I.P.C. were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 25,000/- (Twenty five thousand) each and in default of payment of fine, they were directed to further undergo simple imprisonment for six months. By the same order i.e. order dated 03-01-2015, under Section 144 of the I.P.C., all the appellants were directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and under Section 27 of the Arms Act, all the appellants were directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years. The aforesaid three appellants namely, Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015), Kripa Shankar Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 301 of 2015) and Mantu Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 193 of 2015) under Section 307/34 of the I.P.C. were directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay fine of Rs. 15,000/- (fifteen thousand) each and in default of payment of fine, they were directed to further undergo simple imprisonment for three months. All the sentenced were directed to run concurrently. The judgment of conviction and sentence was passed by Sri Satya Prakash, learned Additional Sessions Judge-VI, Patna (hereinafter referred to as 'Trial Judge').

(3.) Short fact of the case is that on 27-07-2011, a written report on behalf of Bhanu Kumar Chaudhary @ Santosh Kumar Chaudhary was submitted to the officer incharge, Jakkanpur Police Station, Patna disclosing therein that he was owner of 'Krishna Rath' bus service. On 27-07-2011, in the evening at 06:00 PM, he arrived bus stand situated at Mithapur in the office of Krishna Rath. His elder brother Ravi Kant Chaudhary (deceased) at about 07:15 PM (evening) also came to his office situated at Mithapur bus stand and sat there. Besides both i.e. informant and his brother (deceased), Anil Kumar Singh (P.W.13), Ram Kumar Sharma (P.W.4), Munna Thakur (P.W.11), Surendra Goswami (P.W.7), Ashok (not examined) etc. were sitting in the said office and they were discussing regarding movement of the vehicle and also regarding accounts. In the office and outside office, there were light of electricity. In the meanwhile, at 08:30 PM (evening), one white colour Scorpio vehicle stopped opposite to his office and four persons got down from the said white colour vehicle, who were (i) Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015), (ii) Mantu Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 193 of 2015), (iii) Kripa Shankar Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 301 of 2015), (iv) Suraj Kumar (not forwarded as accused), who was bodyguard of Kundan Singh. All the four persons were carrying rifle and pistol. Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015) and Mantu Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 193 of 2015) carrying rifle in their hands, Kripa Shankar Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 301 of 2015) and Suraj Kumar (not forwarded as accused) carrying pistol in their hands came inside the office of the informant, where his brother Ravi Kant Chaudhary (deceased) was sitting. Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015) fired from his rifle and shouted to immediately fire and thereafter, Mantu Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 193 of 2015) fired from his rifle, which he was carrying, Kripa Shankar Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 301 of 2015) fired from his pistol, which hit the chest of Ravi Kant (deceased), near right neck and also near the eye whereby his head was blown up and blood started oozing out. His brother died in the sitting condition on the chair itself. Surendra Goswami (P.W.7) was standing near his deceased brother and he also received fire arm injury on his thigh. Thereafter, there was complete chaos and people started running away. After the firing was made, the accused persons on the said white color Scorpio fled away and while fleeing away, Suraj Kumar also fired from his pistol. In the Scorpio, besides aforesaid four accused persons and driver, two other unknown persons were also sitting and Scorpio was in start condition. While Scorpio was moving, he identified the number of vehicle, which was 0027. The informant further stated that with Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015) and his men, since earlier a dispute was going on regarding timing of buses and permit and due to this animosity, earlier also there was dispute with Kundan Singh (appellant in Cr. Appeal DB No. 231 of 2015). He claimed that he and Others, who were sitting in the office, had seen the occurrence. The said written report was signed by the informant and also by one Anil Kumar (P.W.13).