KAPIL SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants-Mukesh Singh and Munni Paswan have been convicted under S.302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short I.P.C.) and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Appellants Kapil Singh, Makshudan Paswan and Parmeshwar Paswan have been convicted under S.302/149, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Appellant-Mukesh Singh has further been convicted under S.379, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years. However, the sentence of appellant Mukesh Singh has been ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) The case of the prosecution was that on 3rd of August, 1984 at about 4.30 p.m. Uma Shanker Singh-informant (PW 2) while cutting grass in his field in Tikapiri Khandha of village Barara, police station Noonsarai, district Nalanda, heard alarm of Tahro Tahro (wait wait). Then the informant noticed his brother Hirdaya Prasad (the deceased in this case) and Brijendra Prasad alias Babu Ram (PW 5) coming on cycle. The informant also saw some persons coming from canal side and going towards road. He suspected that they might do some mischief against his brother so he rushed towards his brother. He identified those persons, who are the present appellants. They surrounded his brother. Kapil Singh ordered his son Mukesh Singh to take out cash from the pocket of Hardaya Prasad and fire at him as Hirdaya Prasad used to bring to them bad names. Thereupon Mukesh Singh fired from his pistol in the abdomen of Hirdaya Prasad. Munni Paswan fired from his pistol upon the order of Kapil Singh resulting into injury to Hirdaya Prasad, who fell down. Mukesh Singh took away the cash from his pocket. When the informant raised alarm for help, then accused Parmeshwar Paswan assaulted him and so also Brijendra Singh with lathis. On the alarm of the informant Rama Kant Singh alias Ghanti Singh (PW 3), Balmiki Singh (PW 4), Tarkeshwar Singh (PW 6) and others arrived on the spot who saved them from further assault. The accused thereafter ran away towards south. The motive for the offence is said to be the bad character of accused Mukesh Singh who used to commit dacoity and his father Kapil Singh used to welcome it, but the same was decried by the deceased Hirdaya Prasad. The injured Hirdaya Prasad was taken to the Sadar Hospital, Biharsharif, where he was attended by a Doctor. R.K. Choudhary, Sub-Inspector of Police, Bihar police station came at the Sadar Hospital and informant-Uma Shanker Singh (PW 2) gave to him his fardbeyan (Ext. 2) at about 8.30 p.m. The victim Hirdaya Prasad died in the hospital after an hour on reaching there. As the place of occurrence was within the jurisdiction of Noorsarai Police Station, the fard-beyan (Ext. 2) was sent to the said police station where the first information report (Ext. 5) was registered at 12 noon under Ss.323, 324, 302 and 379 of the Indian Penal Code and under S.27, Arms Act.

(3.) The Sub-Inspector of Police (Arbind Kumar Sinha) (PW 8), who was officer-incharge of police station Noorsarai, investigated the case. He went to the spot where he found cow-dung, blood stained earth and also empty cartridges of 0.215 bore. He prepared the seizure memo (Ext. 1) of the articles in presence of the witnesses, namely, Bisheshwar Pd. Singh (PW 1) and one Bijoy Singh. During the course of investigation the investigating officer had come to know that the victim had died and so the case was converted into one under S.302, I.P.C. During the investigation Arbind Kumar Sinha wrote a letter (Ext. 6) to the Headmaster of State Basic School, Gokulpur who also gave a reply. The postmortem examination was done by Dr. Ram Pratap Singh (PW 7) on 4-8-1984 at 10.20 a.m. and he submitted postmortem report (Ext. 3). After completion of the investigation charge-sheet was submitted by PW 8.