Case: Baldeo Singh &amp; Others Vs. State of Bihar

2. The incident out of which the case arises took place at about 1.00 p.m. on Sunday the October 4, 1964 in the village Belchhi within the jurisdiction of Halsi Police Station which is about ten miles away. A couple of hours earlier there was a prior incident in which the deceased Dhotan Singh and the aforesaid Babulal Singh, were involved. It appears that the buffaloes belonging to the accused grazed in the paddy field jointly cultivated by Dhotan Singh and his cousin Baleshwar Singh, P.W. 1. The paddy field was close to the Dalan of Babulal. On a protest made by Dhotan Singh to Babulal, there was an exchange of abuse. The matter, however, ended there without any harm being done3. At about 1.00 p.m. Baleshwar Singh, P.W. 1 and Dhotan Singh returned from their field to the village. This field was much further to the North of the village and it appears that Baleshwar Singh, P.W. 1 came to know from Dhotan Singh about the incident of grazing. As the two of them passed through the village lane on their way to their houses, the present incident occurred. The two were coming from North to South. As they came near the Dalan of Babulal, it was noticed that the nine persons referred to above were sitting in the Dalan. On seeing Dhotan Singh Babulal is supposed to have cried "the enemy has come, assault and kill him". That was a signal for all the nine of them to come out of the Dalan into the lane. Indradeo Singh had a saif, a kind of sharp double edged sword, in his hand while the other eight including the appellants and Babulal were armed with sticks. Immediately they came out, they surrounded deceased Dhotan Singh, and Indradeo pierced his saif into the chest of Dhotan Singh. Baleshwar Singh, P.W. 1, who was following him about 8 or 10 paces behind shouted "brother, run away." Thereupon Dhotan Singh ran back to the North. The case is that all those accused who were armed with lathis pursued him and assaulted him with the result that Dhotan Singh fell down some 67 away from the original place of assault and shortly thereafter he died. The First Information Report was lodged by P.W. 1 that same afternoon at about 5.00 p.m4. The defence was that all the nine accused had been falsely implicated. It was stated that there was a quarrel about the grazing of cattle between one Kailash Singh and the deceased Dhotan Singh and Babulal had nothing to do with it. It was during the course of this quarrel, somebody picked up a bamboo pole from the mandap of Harcharan Baba and attacked the deceased Dhotan Singh in the chest. Dhotan Singh and the prosecution witnesses belonged to one group and due to enmity and grudge all the nine accused who were close relatives were falsely implicated.

Court's reasoning:
In the Committing Court, however, he had stated that Dhotan Singh had been assaulted with lathis when he was running. It would be, therefore, seen from the evidence of these eye witnesses that they are not able to give a correct version as to when he was given lathi blows. Their evidence is seriously discrepant. The important point to be remembered, however, is whether Dhotan Singh could have escaped receiving a number of blows on all parts of his body if he was set upon by seven persons with lathis in their hands, and whether he would not have received even one blow on the head or the back or the legs from behind. If is quite clear from the absence of any such injuries on the back side that he must not have been beaten while being chased. Secondly, if he was attacked by all these persons just at the place near the Dalan where a deep thrust into the chest was made with the saif by Indradeo Singh, it is impossible to conceive that Dhotan Singh would have been able to move even a few feet. As a matter of fact the eye witnesses actually, say that when Indradeo Singh was piercing Dhotan Singh with the saif, the appellants were surrounding him. Baleshwar Singh P.W. 1 says that when the accused persons being armed with lathis and a saif ran towards Dhotan Singh, he could not run away. It appears to us that if about nine persons armed with lathis and a saif intended an attack in the narrow lane, he could hardly have been allowed to escape. The evidence of some of the witnesses that he was assaulted after he fell down 67away is equally absurd because the rear side of the body of Dhotan Singh being exposed, there should be many injuries visible on that part of the body. In our opinion, therefore, the learned Sessions Judge had very good and cogent reasons to doubt the evidence about the assault with lathis, especially when we know that the parties were on inimical terms and there was every likelihood of as many relations of Babulal as possible being involved falsely in the incidentThe other injuries, in our opinion, were quite likely to be caused in the course of the fall. Much was made of the fact that the Medical Officer Dr. Biresh Narain Prasad, P.W. 6 was not asked in hisn as to whether these injuries could not have been caused by a fall. We do not think that in the circumstances of the case much importance could be attached to this omission. That these injuries were caused in the course of the fall had been suggested at the earliest stage of the trial. That being the position, if would have been fair for the prosecution to eliminate this possibility by asking the Medical Officer Dr. Prasad whether those injuries could have been received during the course of a fall, Dr. Prasad was careful in making his statement in his. He did not want to be definite that these injuries must have been caused by lathis. This is what he said "The penetrating wound in the chest was caused by some sharp pointed weapon, may be saif. The remaining injuries were caused by some hard blunt substance, may be by lathi also". Indeed it would have been safer for the defence toe the medical officer in greater detail with regard to these injuries. But it cannot be said that the learnedr was guilty of any error in not pursuing the point seeing that, at an earlier stage, he had suggested that those injuries could have been caused during the course of a fall and still the prosecutor had not chosen to negative this suggestion by putting the possibility to the Medical Officer who was examined later. In any event it is quite clear that these injuries could not have been the only injuries to be caused if the assault had taken place with lathis in the manner as alleged by the prosecution witnesses. In these circumstances, we think that the learned Sessions Judge was reasonably justified in coming to the conclusion he di