UPENDRA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Appeal arises out of judgment and order - dated the 10th September, 1986 passed by Sri Han Krishna Prasad. 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Newadah in Sessions Trial No. 26/613 of 1986/84, whereby he found appellants Nos. 1 and 2. namely, Upendra Prasad and Kailash Prasad guilty under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short the Code) and sentenced each of them to undergo R.I. for life. The learned Additional Sessions Judge also found appellant No.3. Paras Prasad guilty under Section 307 of the Code and 27-A of the Arms Act and sentenced him to undergo R.I. for five years and three years respectively, and also ordered that the aforesaid sentences will run concurrently. He also found the appellant No.2 guilty under Section 147 of the Code and other two appellants, namely, appellant Nos. 1 and 3 guilty under Section 148 of the Code, but no separate sentence was passed against them under the aforesaid section However, one of the accused, namely, Nilkanth Prasad, who was charged under Sections 302, 149, 379 and 426 of the Code and was also facing trial along with these three appellants was found not guilty of the charges framed against him and so he was acquitted.

(2.) The prosecution case as appears from the fardbeyan and others evidences on record in short is that on 2-3-1995 the informant Han Nandan Prasad (PW 4) along with other male members of his family had gone out of the village in connection with certain works and when in the evening at 5 p.m. they returned to their house, they heard from Gulabi Devi (PW 8) wife of the informant (PW 4) that the accused persons along with a large number of labourers had forcibly harvested their Tisi crops. While the aforesaid Gulabi Devi (PW 8) was narrating the earlier occurrence the accused persons armed with various weapons were seen coming along with the harvested Tisi crops bundles on the head of the labourers. The informant Han Nandan Prasad thereafter went towards the labourers of the accused persons and asked them to keep the bundles of the Tisi crops in his. Khalihan and this led altercation: In the meantime mother of the informant Jamuni Devi and his wife Gulabi Devi also arrived there. It further appears that thereafter appellant No.3, who was armed with a gun, fired a gun shot towards the informant, but it hit Gulabit Devi (PW 8) on her forehead and nose. Thereafter appellant No.1 gave a Saif blow on the informant (PW 4), which however, hit Jamuni Devi and appellant No.2 also assaulted her by lathi, as a result Jamuni Devi received injury and she died on the spot. The informant arid his other family members went inside their house and bolted the doors. Then the accused persons went up on the tiled roof of the house from when, the appellants No.3 fired a shot from his gun and other accused persons broke the tiles of the house of the informant. When the informant and his other family members raised alarm, Phoolchand alias Phula Prasad Yadav - (PW 1), Ambika alias Ambku Prasad (PW 2), Parmeshwar Mahto (PW 3) and Parmeshwar Mistiri (PW 7) came there and the accused persons ran away.

(3.) In the next morning the informant Harinandan Prasad(PW 4) accompanied by his wife Gulabi Devi (PW 8) and others went to Sardulla Police Station along with the dead body of his mother Jamuni Devi, where the statement of the Informant HarinaLldan Prasad (PW 4) was recorded at the Police Station and on the basis of the aforesaid statements a formal FIR was drawn- up. Thereafter Sri Sheopoojan Singh, ASI (PW 10) prepared an inquest report of the dead body of Jamuni Devi and sent the same to Nawadah Hospital for postmortem examination, where autopsy of the dead body was held by Dr. Ram Padarath Singh (PW 9), who prepared post-mortem report after such examination. A requisition was also issued for examination of Gulabi Devi (PW.8), who was examined by Dr. Nagendra Prasad (PW 11) and an injury report was issued for the - same. The police also visited the place of occurrence for investigation and recovered some blood stained earth from the place of occurrence, which was later sent to the Chemical Examiner for examination and a report was also received from there marked as Ext. 5. Subsequently Sri Sheopoojan Singh, ASI (PW 10) handed over charge to Sri Sitaram Singh, who ultimately submitted chargesheet in the case against four accused persons, who were put on trial, out of whom three accused persons were convicted and sentenced in the manner as indicated above: whereas one accused person, namely, Nilkanth Prasad was acquitted from the charges framed against him.