Case: Bahadur Singh &amp; Others Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh

2. The appellants herein are five in number and were charged along with ten other accused on the allegation that they armed with deadly weapons indulged in rioting and in furtherance of their common object committed the murder of Babulal and caused simple injury to Bhanwar in Sessions case no.193 of 2005 on the file of Additional Sessions Judge, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh. The Trial Court acquitted two of the accused persons and convicted the remaining thirteen accused for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/each in default to suffer three months rigorous imprisonment each. It also convicted them for offence under Section 148 IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. Challenging the conviction and sentence all the convicted accused preferred six appeals. The High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence of five accused by dismissing their appeals and acquitted the remaining eight accused by allowing their appeals. Aggrieved by the confirmation of their conviction and sentence the said five accused have preferred the present appeals.3.The prosecution case in brief is stated thus:PW7 Shanti Lal, deceased Babu Lal and Shiv Narayan are brothers and on 7.8.2005 at 6.30 p.m. they had gone to work in their field situated at a distance from their village Dudhia. In the evening at 6.30 p.m. they along with their servant PW1 Bhanwar while returning to their house Babu Lal was riding his motorcycle and PW7 Shanti Lal, Shiv Narayan and Bhanwar were following him on another motorcycle. On the way motorcycle of Babu Lal went out of order and he was trying to restart it, at that moment all the accused armed with dharia, axe, sword, balam and lathies surrounded Babu Lal and the accused persons Aziz son of Wali Mohammad and Aziz son of Jan Mohammad, Bahadur Singh, Madan and Dinesh attacked Babu Lal by dharia. PW7 Shanti Lal and Shiv Narayan tried to save Babu Lal but the accused threatened to attack them if they come near. Servant PW1 Bhanwar proceeded towards Babu Lal and he was assaulted by lathi by accused Chand Mohammad and he ran away. All the accused fled towards village Ranayara. PW7 Shanti Lal and Shiv Narayan went near Babu Lal and found him dead. They returned to the village and PW7 Shanti Lal went to Police Station Aalot and lodged complaint at 7.20 p.m. PW17 Town Inspector P.K. Sharma registered the case and Exh.P28 is the First Information Report. He took up the investigation and went to occurrence place and prepared Exh.29 Spot Map. He conducted inquest and prepared Exh.P18 Inquest Report. He sent the body forPW16 Dr. Prakash conducted autopsy on the body at Civil Hospital, Aalot at 8.30 a.m. on 8.8.2005 and found 32 incised wounds and 3 abrasions on the body and expressed opinion that the death has occurred due to shock and excessive external haemorrhage due to injury to neck, vessels, air passage and vital parts like brain,hours prior toExh.P38 is the Post Mortem Report issued by him. PW16 Dr. Prakash also examined PW1 Bhanwar and Exh.P46 is the MLC Report issued by him.4. PW17 Inspector Sharma arrested the accused and on their disclosure statements he recovered the weapons used in the occurrence. He also seized the blood strained earth from the occurrence place, the clothes of the deceased and other articles. He sent the weapons with Exh.P43 query to Doctor for opinion and obtained the same. He sent the seized articles to Forensic Science Laboratory with Exh.P44 requisition. He completed the investigation and filed the final report against the accused.5. The prosecution examined PWs 1 to 17 and marked documents to prove the charges. The defence examined DW1 on their side. The Trial Court acquitted two of the accused and convicted the remaining thirteen accused and sentenced them as stated earlier. The High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence imposed on five accused by dismissing their appeals and acquitted the remaining eight accused by allowing their appeals. Challenging their conviction and sentence the five accused have preferred these appeals.

Court's reasoning:
12. The appellants on their arrest gave information which led to the recovery of weapons used by them during the occurrence. PW2 Rameshwar, PW5 Pare Singh and PW6 Jagdish have testified that the appellants in their presence gave individual information and took and produced the weapons from the hidden place and they came to be recovered by the investigation officer. The said weapons were shown to PW16 Dr. Prakash and he has also expressed opinion that the injuries found on the dead body could have been caused by those weapons.13. There was also motive for the occurrence. There was a bomb explosion on the day of Holika Dahan which led to the arrest of the accused, who is also one of the accused in the present case and they were having grudge that at the instance of Babu Lal they were implicated in the said case. Besides the above there was enmity on account of election to Shikshak Palak Sangh and meeting of Nirman Samiti in the village which culminated in the present occurrence.14. The High Court after careful and close scrutiny of the evidence entertained doubt with regard to the participation of eight of the accused on account of absence of overt act attributable to them and gave them benefit of doubt and acquitted them. The ocular testimony of PW7 Shanti Lal about the attack made by the appellants herein on Babu Lal is corroborated by the medical evidence and the recovery of weapons pursuant to the information furnished by them. In our considered view the conviction and sentence imposed on the appellants does not call for any interference.