Judgment

Arijit Pasayat, J.—Leave granted.

2. Appellant calls in question legality of the judgment rendered by a learned Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench affirming his conviction for offence punishable under Section 324 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’) and sentence of one year rigorous imprisonment as imposed by the trial court. The revision application filed under Section 397 read with Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the ‘Code’) was dismissed. Initially four persons had faced trial. Three of them were acquitted.

3. The prosecution version in a nutshell is as follows:-

On 8th of July, 1990, in the evening Naseeb Alam (PW-1) was going to his house from Sadullanagar market. At about 4.30 P.M. in front of Village Parsarampur on the road, four accused persons, who were co-villagers met him. Due to old animosity, they began to uttar vulgar abuses. Upon objection, accused-appellant Anwarul Haq inflicted blows by the knife carried in his hand, because of which serious injuries were caused in the right hand of PW-1. Jesulla and Idrish (PW-2) coming towards to the village from Sadullanagar reached there upon hearing his cries, rescued him. They had seen the incident. The accused persons fled away from the spot of the incident while threatening to kill. The accused Anwarulhaq fled away while leaving behind his bicycle at the spot. First information report was written by Rajkumar Srivastava, it was lodged at the police station on the basis of which the first information report was registered on the same day at 17.20 hours vide No. Ex.P/4. The memo for the bicycle was drawn vide Ex.P/2. The wounded informant was sent to the Primary Health Centre, Sadullanagar along with a written letter through the constable Chandraz Bhushan Pathak and his medical examination was done which is Ex.P/3. After the investigations, charge-sheet was filed for alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 324, 504 and 506 IPC, on the basis of which cognizance was taken.

4. The four accused persons faced trial for alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 324 read with 34, 504, 506(2) IPC. Accused persons pleaded innocence and faced trial. The accused persons took the plea that they were falsely implicated because of animosity.

5. On behalf of the prosecution side, the witnesses of the facts viz., PW-1-Naseebalam, PW-2-Mohd. Idrish, and formal witness PW-3-Dr. S.N. Pandey, PW-4-Chandrabhan Yadav were examined.

6. Out of the four persons who were tried, three were acquitted and only the appellant was convicted. The three persons were acquitted on the ground that the evidence was not sufficient so far as they are concerned. Doctor (PW-3) who had examined the injured found the following injuries:-

1. Incised wound of 6 Cm. x 1.5 Cm. x 1 Cm. at the wrist of right hand in frontal portion.

2. Complaint at the back of the chest.

7. Placing reliance on the evidence of the injured, the accused was found guilty and convicted. Trial court found that the first information report was lodged immediately after the occurrence and there is nothing infirm to discard the testimony of the injured witness. Accordingly the conviction was made and sentence was awarded as aforesaid. The revision before the High Court was dismissed. An application for review was also dismissed. Both the orders are under challenge in these appeals.

8. The High Court found that the plea regarding unreliability of the evidence of eye witnesses was clearly without substance and there is no infirmity in the order of the trial court. Accordingly the Revision Application was dismissed.

9. In support of the appeal, learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the courts below did not take note of the fact that there was animosity between the parties and therefore the evidence of the so called eye witnesses was tainted. Additionally the knife supposed to have been used was not recovered. In any event it was not estab