BIRBAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been preferred against the judgment dated 18th December, 1984, passed by the Sessions Judge. Tonk, convicting and sentencing the accused appellants as under:

(2.) ON 7th April, 1984, on Mannalal Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat Bagrwa submitted a written -report at PS -Piplu; to the effect that some miscreants had committed dacoity at the house of Bhanwarlal son of Madholal, at village Naurangpura, on the intervening night of 6th and 7th, and that in that dacoity, the property of Bhanwarlal had been looted. According to the report, Bhanwarlal was not present in the village, at that time. The informant mentioned in the report that when Bhanwarlal would return to village a list of his stolen articles, would be submitted. Bhanwarlal's son Ramgopal was present, and he told him that his transistor of 2 bands of Jemco -make and 10 -15 silver coins had been taken away by the dacoits. In the report, he also mentioned that Ramgopal and other villagers, namely, Shivratan Singh, Laxmansingh, Ramkaran, Nanda and Bhagwana had also arrived there. They gave warning to those miscreants, and thereupon, the latter started giving blows by lathis and knives In that occurrence, all the persons were injured, and particularly, the condition of Bhagwana was not good. He also mentioned in the report that one lantern was burning outside his shop, and that Ramgopal and a few other persons then followed the miscreants in a tractor. The villagers had seen those dacoits very well, in the light of the lantern, and they could identify them.

(3.) THE injured persons were sent to hospital. Some time thereafter, Bhagwana died at the SMS Hospital, Jaipur. The case was then converted into that under Sections 302/396, I.P.C. During investigation, the accused persons were arrested by the police. Birbal and Pulgan were arrested on 17th April, 1984 while the other six accused persons were arrested on 8th April, 1984. The police also recovered some minor articles from possession of some of the accused persons. Identification -parade was also conducted by the Magistrate, and the accused -appellants were identified by the prosecution witnesses.