Case: Sheo Shankar Singh Vs. State Of Jharkhand

2. Briefly stated the prosecution case is that on 14th April, 2000, the deceased-Shri Gurudas Chatterjee, a sitting member of Jharkhand State Legislative Assembly was returning to Nirsa from Dhanbad riding the pillion seat of a motorcycle that was being driven by the first informant Apurba Ghosh, examined at the trial as PW 16. At about 2.45 p.m. when the duo reached a place near Premier Hard Coke, Apurba Ghosh, the informant heard the sound of a gunshot from behind. He looked back only to find that appellant-Sheo Shankar Singh was driving a black motorcycle on the left of the informant with an unknown person, later identified as Umesh Singh, sitting on the pillion seat carrying a pistol in his hand. Umesh Singh, the pillion rider, is alleged to have fired a second time from close range which hit the deceased-Gurudas Chatterjee in the head, who slumped on the back of the informant thereby disturbing the balance of the motorcycle and bringing both of them to the ground. The motorcycle driven by Sheo Shanker Singh was stopped by him a little ahead whereupon Umesh Singh the pillion rider got down; walked back to the place where the deceased had fallen, abused the informant verbally and asked him to run away from there failing which even he would be killed. So threatened the informant hurried away from the spot whereupon Umesh Singh-appellant fired a third bullet at the deceased, pushed his dead body down the side slope of the road, walked back to the motorcycle whose engine was kept running by Sheo Shankar Singh and fled towards Nirsa. Some people are said to have run towards them but were scared away by Umesh Singh with the gun. The motorcycle did not have a registration number. A crowd is said to have gathered on the spot that included Abdul Kudus Ansari (PW1) and Lal Mohan Mahto (PW2) who disclosed that they had seen Sheo Shankar Singh and one unknown person moving on a motorcycle without a registration number sometime before the occurrence3. On hearing a rumour about the killing of the deceased MLA, Sub Inspector of Police Ramji Prasad (PW17) rushed to the spot and recorded the statement of Apurba Ghosh (PW16) in which the informant narrated the details of the incident as set out above. The statement of Apurba Ghosh constituted the First Information Report in the case which was signed not only by Apurba Ghosh but also by Abdul Kudus Ansari (PW1) and Lal Mohan Mahto (PW2). Based on the said statement/FIR a case under Section 302/34 and 120B of IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act was registered in Police Station Govindpur and the investigation commenced

Reasoning:
60. Coming to the case at hand we are of the opinion that the High Court was not justified in imposing the extreme penalty of death upon the appellants. We say so for reasons more than one. Firstly, because the appellants are not professional killers. Even according to the prosecution they were only a part of the coal mafia active in the region indulging in theft of coal from the collieries. The deceased being opposed to such activities appears to have incurred their wrath and got killed. Secondly, because even when the deceased was a politician there was no political angle to his killing. Thirdly, because while all culpable homicides amounting to murder are inhuman, hence legally and ethically unacceptable yet there was nothing particularly brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly in the manner of its execution so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community or exhaust depravity and meanness on the part of the assailants to call for the extreme penalty. Fourthly, because there was difference of opinion on the question of sentence to be awarded to the convicts. The Trial Court did not find it to be a rarest of rare case and remained content with the award of life sentence only which sentence the High Court enhanced to death. Considering all these circumstances, the death sentence awarded to the appellants in our opinion deserves to be commuted to life imprisonment