BESAT Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE four appeals/revision are directed against the judgment dated March 31, 1980, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Udaipur, by which the learned Additional Sessions Judge convicted the accused appellants Lala for offence under Section 307 IPC and accused Vesat and Smt. Homli for offence under Section 307 read with Section 114 IPC and awarded a sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment to each of them and a fine of Rs. 5000/ - to each of the accused appellants. Since all the aforesaid three appeals and one revision arise out of the same judgment, I, therefore, propose to decide them by this common judgment.

(2.) ACCUSED Lala was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Udaipur under Section 307 IPC and accused Vesat and Smt. Homli were tried for offence under Section 307 read with Section 114 IPC. The case of the prosecution, as unfolded in the First Information Report, which was lodged at the Police Station, Panarwa, on January 6, 1979, by one Datta Ram, is that on January 3, 1979, at about 7.00 p.m. he had gone to Narsa's house to call him to bring water at the Police Out post. After asking Narsa, he had gone towards the river and when he reached near the house of Nalu, accused Vesat and his wife Homli and his son Lala were going towards their house and were abusing Haliya. When he asked them not to do so, all the three accused -appeallants enraged and Vesat told,

(3.) IN the meanwhile Smt. Homli caught -hold of him and Lala, in order to kill him, inflicted an injury with a knife. On hearing the alarm, Hallu and Narsa came there. During trial, the prosecution, in support of its case, produced four eye witnesses of the occurrence, namely, PW 1 Datta Ram, PW 2 Halu, PW 3 Narsa and PW 4 Dalla. PW 5 Thawra was produced as a 'MOTBIR' witness to show the recovery of the blood -stained Bushirt accused Besat. PW 6 Nath lal is the Station House Officer, who conducted the investigation and presented the challan PW 7 Dr. G.L. Verma and PW 9 Dr. J.S. Matha were produced by the prosecution to prove the injury and the X -ray Report. PW 8 Veerji has been produced to show the recovery of 'CHURRI' - the weapon of the offence. The accused did not produce any witness in support of his defence. The learned trial Court did not place reliance over the testimony of PW 2 Halu, PW 3 Narsa and PW 4 Dalla - the alleged eye witnesses of the occurrence, as they have not supported the prosecution case. According to the learned Additional Sessions Judge, the evidence of PW 3 Thawra and PW 8 Veerji were, also, of no consequence as the Blood statined shirt and 'CHURRI' in question were not found blood statined in the Forensic Science Laboratory's report. The learned Additional Sessions Judge placed reliance only on the testimony of PW 1 Datta Ram for convicting the accused appellants for the offence under Sections 307 and 307 read with 114 IPC. The learned Additional Sessions Judge after trial, convicted and sentenced the accused Lala under Section 307 IPC and accused Besat and Smt. Homli under Section 307/114 IPC. It is against this judgment, convicting and sentencing the appellants as aforesaid, that the present appeals have been filed by the accused alongwith the revision petition filed by the District Probation Officer for releasing the accused -appellant on probation of good conduct. S.B. Criminal Jail Appeal No. 170 of 1980 Besat v. the State of Rajasthan and S.B. Criminal Jail Appeal No. 171 of 1980 Lala v. the State of Rajasthan have been filed by the accused through jail, while S.B. Criminal Appeal No. 211 of 1980 Lala and Ors. v. the State of Rajasthan has been filed by all the accused -appellants through their Advocate. S.B. Criminal Revision Petition No. 85 of 1981 has been filed through the District Probation Officer for granting the benefit of probation of good conduct to the accused appellants.