IMPORTANT POINTS
High Court can re-appreciate evidence only when the trial court judgment of acquittal is perverse. However, if the view taken by trial court is a possible view, it will not be interfered with.
Minor discrepancies cannot be ground for disbelieving evidence of eye witnesses.
Testimony of interested witness cannot, per se, be discarded.
Other independent witnesses turning hostile can be no ground to discredit evidence of injured interested witnesses.
Appellant actively participating in unlawful assembly, section 149 IPC is attracted.
Non-examination of material witnesses is not fatal to prosecution case.

JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J.

The present appeal calls in question the defensibility and the legal sustainability of the Judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Bench at Gwalior in Criminal Appeal No. 214 of 1995 whereby the High Court has dislodged the Judgment of acquittal recorded by the learned Additional Sessions Judge in respect of all the accused persons including the present appellant for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Sections 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 148 IPC and proceeded to sentence each of the accused under Section 302 read with Section 149 of IPC and imposed rigorous imprisonment for life along with separate sentences for other offences with the stipulation that all the sentences would be concurrent. Be it noted, the appellant and one Mangal Singh were also tried under Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.

2. The facts which are essential to be exposited for the disposal of this appeal are that on 7.1.1984 about 9.00 a.m. when Ratta, PW-7, was at his home, the accused persons, namely, Mangal Singh, Babbu, Jodhan, Kanchhedi, Bhinua, Ramswaroop and Natthu and others came there armed with lathis, farsa and handmade bombs and started abusing Ratta and his family members and exhorted that they would not leave the Kumharwalas alive. As alleged, Kanchhedi assaulted Rukmanibai on her left hand with farsa, Jodhan, the present appellant, caused injury in the right leg of Heeralal, PW-16, by throwing a handmade bomb at him and accused Mangal Singh threw a handmade bomb on the chest of Siriya alias Shriram as a result of which he received serious injuries. Other accused persons used lathi in the incident. As the prosecution story proceeds, Ratta lodged an FIR, Ex. P/24, on 7.1.1984 about 12.15 p.m. and by that time Siriya @ Shriram had already succumbed to the injuries. The injured persons were medically examined and on requisition by the investigating agency postmortem was carried out. The investigating agency in the course of investigation prepared the spot map, collected the bloodstained soil from the place of incident, and further, as is demonstrable, on being led by the accused persons seized the weapons, namely, lathi, farsa and handmade bombs and, thereafter, sent the seized articles to the chemical examiner for analysis. The investigating officer recorded the statements of the witnesses and eventually placed the chargesheet in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Vidisha, who, in turn, committed the matter to the Court of Session, Vidisha.

3. The learned trial Judge framed charges under Sections 302, 323, 324 read with Sections 149 and 148 of IPC against all the accused persons and an additional charge under Section 324 IPC against the accused Kanchhedi and under Sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substances Act against Jodhan and Mangal Singh.

4. The accused persons pleaded not guilty and took the plea of false implication. It was the further case of the accused persons that the informant and others had confined Babbu Khangar in a room and assaulted him and because of the injuries inflicted on Babbu he expired later on.

5. In order to establish the charges levelled against the accused persons the prosecution examined as many as 16 witnesses and marked number of documents as Exhibits. During trial Mishri, PW-1, Harnam Singh, PW-3, Tulsa Bai, PW-4 and Hazrat Singh, PW-5, did not support the prosecution story and accordingly were declared hostile by the prosecution. The learned trial Judge while appreciating the evidence on record noted certain discrepancies, expressed doubt about the testimony of the witnesses who had deposed in favour of the prosecution, referred to the cases pending in the Court, the free fight between the parties, absence of satisfactory explanation by the prosecution as regards the injuries sustained by the accused persons, the absence of independent evidence on record and