SONU PRAJAPATI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Cr. Appeals 194 and 198 of 1990(R) which arise out of common judgment and order dated 28 -7 -1990 in S.T. No. 347 of 1988 passed by Sri Satyendra Singh, the then IVth Addl. Sessions Judge, Palamu, have been heard analogous and are being disposed of by this judgment.

(2.) Sonu Prajapati and Karmu Prajapati are the appellants in Cr. Appeal No. 194 of 1990(R). The sole appellant in Cr. Appeal No. 198 of 1990(R) is Prasad Prajapati. All the three appellants have been convicted under Sections 302 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life thereunder. Further, appellants Sonu and Karmu Prajapati have been convicted under Section 27 of the Arms Act and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years, each, on this count. Besides, appellant Karmu Prajapati has been convicted under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months thereunder. However, all the sentences passed on the appellants have been directed to run concurrently.

(3.) Briefly put, the prosecution case, as made out in the first information report (Exhibit 2), is as under: On 28 -1 -1988, around 8.30 p.m. the informant P.W. 3 (Bilash Prajapati) was returning home from the rice mill of Sheo Sonar situate at village Chattarpur after getting the paddy de -husked in the company of his father (Chhatu Prajapati), the deceased, his wife (Smt. Phulbasia Devi), P.W. 2, and his son (Ramswaroop Prajapati) P.W. 8 and when on the way they reached Baratillah in the field of Ramgulam Kaharir, they saw the appellants and an unknown miscreant coming from the opposite direction. Appellant Karmu Prajapati uttered that he would teach a lesson to the deceased for practising witch -craft, whereupon appellant Sonu Prajapati fired gun shot causing wound to the deceased on his left shoulder, who fell down and died instantaneously on the spot. Appellant Karmu Prajapati too fired a gun shot which hit none. Thereafter, appellant Karmu Prajapati gave a slap to the informant. The informant's wife and his son raised a hue and cry, whereupon the appellants fled, towards the western direction. Ori alarm, Munni Ram (P.W. 5), Ramjatan Ram (P.W. 6) and some other villagers arrived on the spot to whom the informant narrated the incident. The motive alleged behind the murder of the deceased is that the appellants suspected that by his witch -craft the daughter of appellant Prasad Prajapati had fallen sick and there were differences between the deceased and the appellants. The informant lodged the first information report with Chattarpur Police Station about the occurrence on the same day at about 8 30 p.m. The distance between the place of occurrence and the police station is about a kilometre. On the basis of the first information report, the present case came to the instituted. The Police Officer (P.W. 14) visited and inspected the spot, he held inquest over the dead body of the deceased and seized bloodstained earth from the spot. After completion of investigation, charge -sheet was laid in Court against the appellants. The case was ultimately committed to the Court of Session by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Daltonganj, on 29 -6 -1988.