Criminal Appeal (SJ) No. 155 OF 1995 In the matter of an appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. ************ 1. Ram Prit Rai, S/o Late Jiyut Rai. 2. Paras Rai, S/o Late Jiyut Rai. 3. Brij Kishor Rai, S/o Paras Rai. 4. Yashuwant Rai, S/o Paras Rai. All are R/o village-Mathia, Police Station-Shikarpur, District-West Champaran. ……(Appellants) Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR-------(Respondent) ************* For the Appellants : Mr. Bashishtha Narayan Mishra, Adv. : Mr. B.K. Mishra, Adv. For the State : Dr. Kumar Uday Pratap, APP. ************** P R E S E N T THE HON'BLE JUSTICE SMT. ANJANA PRAKASH Anjana Prakash, J. 1. The appellants No. 1 and 2 have been convicted under Section 324 IPC and sentenced to RI for three years whereas appellants No. 3 and 4 have been convicted under Section 323 IPC and sentenced to RI for three months by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, West Champaran, Bettiah in S.Tr. No. 386 of 1987/50 of 1995 by a judgment dated 22.07.1995. 2. The case of the prosecution is that on 03.04.1985 when the informant was harvesting his wheat crops the accused persons variously armed came there and the appellants No. 1 and 2 assaulted him with the “Farsa” whereas the rest of the appellants assaulted him with the lathis. 2 3. The prosecution in all examined six witnesses out of whom P.W. 5 is the Doctor who examined the informant and found four injuries on his person but apart from injury No. 1 the rest were simple in nature. P.W. 1, P.W. 2, P.W. 3, P.W. 4 are witnesses on the factum of occurrence whereas P.W. 6 is a formal witness. The prosecution has not examined Investigating Officer. 4. On behalf of the defence it was urged that in fact the land belonged to them and the prosecution party was the aggressor and on the said date they had been assaulted for which a counter-case has been instituted by the accused persons. 5. On going through the evidence of material witnesses, I find that they are all interested and in absence of examination of any independent witness as also the non-examination of the Investigating Officer, I am not inclined to sustain the conviction of the appellants on the basis of evidence of only partisan witnesses. 6. In the result, the appeal is allowed and the judgment dated 22.07.1995 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, West Champaran at Bettiah in S.Tr. No. 386 of 1987/50 of 1985 is set aside. The appellants are discharged of the liability of their bail bonds. 3 7. However, if the appellant No. 1 is alive he is directed to pay a sum of Rs. 1,000/- to the victim/his family within a period of eight weeks of receipt of such notices from the Trial Court in case he fails to do so an imprisonment of six months RI. (Anjana Prakash, J.) Patna High Court, Patna, Dated, the 5th May, 2011. NAFR/Vikash/-