ASHISH PASWAN Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) <DJG>D.P.S.CHOUDHARY, N.N.Singh, JJ.</DJG> 1. These three criminal appeals have been heard together and this judgment shall dispose of all the appeals. The appellants have preferred these appeals against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 24.1.1986 passed by the 3rd Additional District and Sessions Judge, Munger in Sessions Trial No. 635 of 1983. Appellant, Ashish Paswan has been sentence to undergo life imprisonment for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal code. Accused, Sahdeo Paswan alias Kokia has been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code. Accused, Ashok Mandal and Mahendra alias Bhutka have been sentence to undergo life imprisonment for the offence under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The prosecution case in brief is that oh 14.7.1983 at about 12 p.m. all the abovenamed four accused persons went to Ram Singh who was residing as a tenant in the house of the informant, Kamaljit Singh. They demanded money from Ram Singh for the purpose of taking wine which he refused. Thereupon, they all started assaulting him. The informant, Kamaljit Singh and his friend Dilip Singh and the servant of Ram Singh, namely, Mathura Yadav intervened and asked the accused not to assault Ram Singh. Thereupon, accused, Ashok Mandal and Sahdeo Paswan abused them and assaulted them with fists and slaps. They raised alarm. Thereupon, the grand -father of the informant, Sardar Gopal Singh, aged about 70 years, arrived there and objected to the high -handedness of the accused persons. Further case of the prosecution is that thereafter, accused, Sahdeo Yadav ordered to kill Gopal Singh. Thereupon, accused, Ashish Paswan, who had a brick in his hand assaulted Sardar Gopal Singh on his head, who fell down with a bleeding injury. Accused, Ashok Mandal got on the chest of Sardar Gopal Singh with a bottle. On alarm, the local people arrived, including Kishore Kumar, Sarbjit Singh and Birendra Singh (P.W. 1). The accused persons left the place. The informant took his grandfather to Railway Hospital where he was declared dead, who had actually died on way to the hospital. It was alleged that accused persons are veteran criminals and they had been in jail several times. The informant gave his statement before the police which has been marked Ext. 3. The formal F.I.R. was drawn up which is marked Ext. 4. The informant signature on his statement is marked Ext. 1.

(3.) From the trend of the cross -examination the defence case emerges as that Mathura Yadav was the servant of Ram Singh whose salary was due. On demand of salary there was a quarrel between Mathura Yadav and Ram Singh, upon which deceased Gopal Singh tried to intervene and he was pushed by Mathura Yadav, who fell on the brick -floor, causing injury on his head. It is further case of the defence that accused persons used to protest against the black -marketing done by the informant, who is a fair price shop owner, and as such was falsely implicated.