Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2019 Supreme(SC) 290

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Uday Umesh Lalit, Dinesh Maheshwari, JJ.
DAUWALAL @ GANESH DEVANGAN AND OTHERS – Appellant
Versus
STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH (NOW STATE OF CHHATTISGARH) – Respondent
Criminal Appeal Nos. 478-479 of 2019 (Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (Criminal) Nos. 457-458 of 2016)
Decided on : 15-03-2019

Advocates Appeared:
For the Appellant : Mr. Ajit Sharma, AOR (A.C) Mr. Navin Prakash, AOR Meetu Singh, Adv. Mr. Anshuman Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Abhijeet Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. B. Ramana Murthy, Adv.
For the Respondent: Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR Mr. Aman Nandrajog, Adv. Mr. Ashish Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Suryakamal Mishra, Adv.

IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) In a crime committed by an unlawful assembly by principle of vicarious liability, every member of unlawful assembly would be guilty of offence, even if he himself had not done actual act.
(2) Common object of unlawful assembly – Facts must indicate with clarity that accused was in fact a member of unlawful assembly.

Headnote:Indian Penal Code, 1860 – Sections 302/149, 147, 148, 323, 342 and 450 – Murder, hurt, wrongful restraint and house trespass – Common object of unlawful assembly – Conviction and sentence – In a crime committed by an unlawful assembly by principle of vicarious liability, every member of unlawful assembly would be guilty of offence, even if he himself had not done actual act – But facts must indicate with clarity that such person was in fact a member of unlawful assembly – Prosecution did not allege that any of appellants had stormed inside house and had dragged deceased – Considering evidence of PWs, it is not established beyond reasonable doubt that appellants were guilty of offences with which they were tried – Appellants acquitted of all charges levelled against them by extending them benefit of doubt. (Paras 10, 11 and 12)
       Facts of Case:
       17 persons including appellants were tried for offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 323, 342 and 450 IPC as well as under Section 302 read with 149 IPC in Sessions Case. These appeals, at instance of four original Accused seek to challenge common judgment and order passed by High Court dismissing Criminal Appeal as against appellants.
       Findings of Court:
       Considering all factual aspects, in our considered view, it is not established beyond reasonable doubt that appellants were guilty of offences with which they were tried. We, therefore, grant benefit of doubt to appellants. The appeals are, therefore, allowed and appellants are acquitted of all the charges levelled against them. They be set at liberty unless their presence is required in connection with any other offence.
       Result : Appeals allowed.

JUDGMENT

Udav Umesh Lalit, J.

These appeals, at the instance of four original Accused namely Santosh Kumar, Dauwalal @ Ganesh Devangan, Manohar Verma and Puneetram Verma (Original Accused Nos. 6, 12, 13 and 16 respectively) seek to challenge the common judgment and order dated 15.06.2015 passed by the High Court (High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur) dismissing Criminal Appeal Nos. 410 and 698 of 2000 as against the appellants.

2. First Information Report (Ext. P-60) was lodged with Police Station Bhatapara (Rural), District Raipur pursuant to information received at the Police Station around 12:05 a.m. on 24.02.1997 from Informant Netram (later examined as PW-2). According to the information, the cousin of the Informant named Parasram Yadav, Deputy Sarpanch, Village Jarod, Bhatapara was assaulted fatally on 23.02.1997 at about 9.00 p.m. The relevant information had named certain persons to be responsible for the crime from the assembly of 25-30 persons who had gathered outside the house of the deceased. The information was:-

"Bhuneshwar Verma, Kamta Prasad Yadav, Mohan Verma, Kaushal verma, Gayaram Verma, Santosh Verma, Bihari Lal Verma, Shanker Lal Verma, Bharat Lal Verma, Virendra alias Tatku Verma, Daulal alias Ganesh Dewagan, Puneet Ram Verma etc 25-30 people of his village came at the house of my brother Parasram Yadav, Deputy Sarpanch, Village-Panchayat, Jarod, due to enmity and with intention to kill him and being unanimous and being armed with Laathi, Danda, Khotlaetc started giving filthy abuse and by entering into the house of Parasram assaulted him and they dragged Parasram from his house and took him out in the courtyard and beat him with Laathi, Danda and Bhuneshwar Verma hit stone of about 15-20 kg weight on the head of Parasram and caused his death, due to which his brain got scattered out of skull."

3. During the course of investigation, names of 17 persons surfaced as suspects. Those 17 persons including the appellants were tried for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 323, 342 and 450 IPC as well as under Section 302 read with 149 IPC in Sessions Case No. 359 of 1997.

4. PW-1 Dr. A.D. Purena who had conducted post-mortem on the dead body of the deceased deposed that there were external injuries all over the body. The head was crushed, lacerated with compound multiple fractures on the skull bone, the brain material was absent and the skull bones were fractured in various sizes, multiple in number.

5. The eye witness account was as under:-

I. PW- 2 - Netram, cousin of the deceased in his examination-in-chief deposed: -"I heard sound of Laathi (stick) at the door of my brother Parasram, then I came out and saw that Dayaram, Roshan, Onkar, Vinod, Tatku, Dauwa, Manohar, Mohan, Bhuwan and Punit were there. My brother Parasram is Deputy Sarpanch of Village Jarod. Due to which the accused persons had enmity/quarrel since then. When I saw, at that time the accused persons were loudly shouting saying 'nikalo saale ko' The door was open and seven persons namely Bihari, Shanker, Hari, Vinod, Suneshwar, Bharat and Kamta were beating my brother inside the house. I reached onthe spot and requested the accused persons not to beat my brother, I requested them with folded hand. Thereafter, Bihari was dragged and pulled out my brother, to which I resisted, then Bihari hit at my head. Thereafter, Kamta came from behind and hit Laathi at my head. On this I shivered and got perplexed. Then my wife Dulari Bai caught me by both hand and took me to my room and locked the door and I saw the incident peeping through the gap of door. All the accused persons dragged out my brother from Parchhi and hit Laathi due to which my brother got unconscious and fell down. Thereafter, Bihari told that he could be alive so hit the stone. Thereafter, Bhaneshwar, Bihari, Shanker, Tetku, Vinod hit stone and went away laughing."
II. PW-3 - Urmila, widow of deceased Parasram, deposed:-
"At that time accused Bihari, Kaushal, Hari, Bharat, Bhuwaneshw

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