BADARI MURMU Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 1. The four appellants in this case have been convicted under Sections 307/34 of the Indian Penal Code for having variously assaulted Tarpa Murmu, Chhoti Murmu, Hudu Murmu, Gobind Murmu and Hernia! Marandi with different kinds of weapons ; such as sword, garansa, lathi, etc, with common intention. Appellant No. 1, Badri Murmu, has been convicted under Section 302, I.P.C. for committing murder of Tirka Murmu. The other three appellants have been convicted of offence under Sections 302/34, I.P.C. for having shared the common intention with Badri Murmu for committing the murder of Tirka Murmu which was committed by Badri Murmu. The appellants have also been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Badri Murmu, appellant No. 1, has been sentenced to imprisonment for the under Section 302, I.P.C, The other three appellants have been contended to undergo life imprisonment under Section 302 read with Section 34, I.P.C. and all the four appellants have been sentenced to undergo R.I. for seven years each for offence under Section 307 read with Section 34, I.P.C.

(2.) THE occurrence -is said to have taken place on 6th September, 1986 at village Mathatanr, within the P.S. Chitra, in the District of Deoghart at about 9 a.m. in the morning. The case was registered on the basis of a fardbeyan of one Jubati Tudu, wife of Tirka Murmu, the deceased. She stated that on the alleged date of occurrence in the morning her husband along with Gobind Murmu, Hudu Murmu and Tarpa Murmu and also Chhoti Murmu had gone to a place which was in the forest at Mathatanr. They had gone there at 6,00 a.m. in the morning to dig the foundation for constructing the house and that about 9.00 a.m. the informant went there with breakfast for four persons. By that time, they all had finished their work and they decided that they shall return to their house and then will take the breakfast and thereafter, they prepared to return. In the meanwhile, four appellants arrived there; out of them Munshu Murmu was holding a sword, Badri Murmu and barchha in his hand, Paika Murmu had a garasa in his hand and Gopin Murmu was holding a lathi and was also possessing bow -arrow. As soon as they arrived they said that they should assault and kill them and they started assaulting those five persons, who were earlier engaged in digging foundation. On receiving injuries at the hands of the appellants those persons, namely, Tarpa, Chhoti, Govind and Hudu fell down, but the husband of the informant, namely, Tirka 'slipped away and entered inside the chali of one Madu Murmu situated nearby. The accused -persons followed them and the ifnromant and her brother Hemlal Marandi tried to pacify the accused person, but they did not listen and they also abused them and entered inside the chali. However, Hemlal was also assaulted by the accused -persons with lathi. After entering inside the chali of Madu Murmu the four appellants surrounded and started assaulting Terka and he fell down after receiving injuries. The informant intervened and started urging the assailants not to kill her husband, but they were adamant to kill him and after the husband a barchha blow on the mouth of her husband and the victim started writhing in front of the informant and she raised alarm on which many persons started rushing towards the P.O., but the appellants fled away and the husband of the informant succumbed to his injuries. Later, information was sent to the Police Station Chitra. A Police Officer arrived there and S.I. L.P. Shrivastava, Officer -incharge of Chitra P.S., recorded the fardbeyan of the informant on the basis of which subsequently formal F.I.R. was drawn up and the case was registered and in the mean time the said S.I. L.P. Shrivastava took up investigation of the case and he prepared the inquest report of the deceased, inspected the P.O., made some seizures and prepared the seizure lists He also found some injuries on the injured persons and sent them to hospital and thereafter, recorded the statements of injured persons. Later, after receiving the post -mortem report and on completion of investigation the charge -sheet was submitted in the case and after taking cognizance the case was committed to the Court of Session where the trial commenced.

(3.) IN order to prove the charges against the accused -persons the prosecution examined altogether 13 witnesses in this case and also produced some documents which are admitted into evidence and have been marked Exts 1 to 7. One defence witness has also been examined in this case and certain documents have also been produced which are marked Ext. 'A' to Ext. 'D' series'. So far as witnesses are concerned, out of 13 witnesses examined by the prosecution two of them, i.e., P.W. 6 Dr. Kameshwar Prasad and P.W. 13 Dr. Dina Nath Prasad are the Medical Officers. P.W. 6 Dr. Kameshwar Prasad held the post -mortem examination over the dead body of Tirka Murmu on 7th of September, 1986 at 1.00 p.m. while he was posted as C.A.S. in Sadar Hospital, Deoghar. He found altogether five injuries on the person of the deceased. The injuries were as follows: (i) Incised penetrating wound on left lower lip and chin 1 1/2"x1/2" x3 1/2" deep, cutting the under surface of tongue (2" x 1"x 1/2"), damaging left lower incisor and first premolar teeth which were missing with bleeding sockets and loosing the left lower two incisors, with damaging the blood vessels and other structures on left side on uppermost part of neck and damaging the structure of larynx and pharynx with extensive haematoma ; (ii) Incise wound on the upper mid -occipital 2 1/2" 1/2"x 1/4"; (iii) Lacerated wound on the left side of occipital scalp 1" x 1 /4" x 1 /4"; (iv) Abrasion in front of right knee 1" x 1/4" ; (v) Abrasion on the back of upper part of right thigh 2 1 /2" x 1 1/2"; (vi) Incised wound on the right knee 1 l/4"x 1/2" with missing skin; According to the doctor, on opening the skull haematoma was found on the right side of skull anteriorly and over occipital region. However, no fracture of skull was found. The viscera was pale and chambers were empty and contained blood mixed mnco -fluid. The cause of death according to the doctor was shock and haemorrhage as a result of above not;>d injuries specially injury No. 1 and the time elapsed since death was within 36 hours. According to the doctor, injury No. 1 was caused by sharp -cutting pointed weapon; such as barchha and injuries Nos. 2 and 6 w<;re caused by some sharp -cutting substance ; like sword and garasa. Injuries Nos. 3 to 5 were caused with hard blunt substance; such as lathi. The post -mortem report has been admitted into evidence as Ext. 2. The other doctor is P.W. 13, Dr. Dina Nath Prasad, who examined the injured persons of this case while he was posted as Medical Officer in Primary Health Centre at Palajori on 7 -9 -1986. He had examined Hudu Murmu, son of Chhotka Murmu and found seven injuries on his person which were lacerated wound and bruise caused with some hard blunt substance ; such as lathi or blunt portion of Garasa. On the same day, he also examined Govind Murmu, son of Tarpa Murmu and found five injuries on his person out of which one was incised wound on the right parietal bone and two were lacerated injuries ; one was swelling of left palm and fifth was abrasion. Injury No. 1 was caused with some sharp -cutting weapon; whereas other injuries were caused by hard blunt substance ; such as lathi. On the same day, the doctor also examined Chhotka Murmu, Son of Late Lokhi Ram and found three injuries on his person; one being a punctured wound on the left side of the back of the chest ; another incised wound on the left parietal imminence, and the third incised wound on the left side of forehead above eye -brow. Injuries No. 2 and 5 were caused with sharp -cutting weapon ; whereas injury No. 1 was caused by sharp and pointed weapon. On the same day, the doctor also examined Tarpa Murmu, son of late Lakhi Ram Murmu and found four injuries on his person ; the first being a punctured injury. The second was lacerated wound ; the third and fourth being abrasion. The first injury, i.e. punctured wound was caused on the right temporal region. The lacerated injury was found on the left side of forehead longitudinally and two abrasions were on the upper part of right leg and upper part of the left leg. Injury No. 1 was caused by sharp -cutting weapon whereas injury Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were caused by hard and blunt substances. On the same day the doctor has also examined Hemlal Marandi, son of Bhagat Harandi and had found two injuries on his person ; the first one swelling of lower half of upper arm and swelling of upper half of forearm of left arm and the second injury was abrasion 3" x 1/2". These injuries were simple and caused by hard and blunt substance. These injury reports stand marked as Exts. 7 to 7/4.