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SANJAY KAROL, N. KOTISWAR SINGH
Mahendra Rai @ Harendra Narain Singh And Ors. Etc. – Appellant
Versus
State of Bihar – Respondent
JUDGMENT :
SANJAY KAROL, J.
1. These appeals arise out of the common final judgment and order dated 03.08.2017 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Patna in Government Appeal(DB)No.56/1989 and Criminal Appeal (DB) No.267/1989, whereby the High Court affirmed the conviction and sentence awarded by the learned Trial Court against the appellants in connection with a gruesome incident of mass violence which took place on 29.03.1983 in Village Jamalpur Kodai, P.S. Gaighat, District Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
2. Allegedly, a long-standing village rivalry culminated in a grave incident in which a mob consisting of about 58 accused persons set on fire the residential house of Chandra Shekhar Choudhary of Village Jamalpur Kodai, P.S. Gaighat, District Muzaffarpur, resulting in the brutal murder of five members of his immediate family/village and causing severe injuries to several others. The incident was reported to the police, leading to registration of Gaighat P.S. Case No. 38 of 1983. Upon completion of investigation, charge-sheets were laid and the accused persons were sent up for trial.
3. Charges were framed against the accused persons under Sections 147, 148, 436, 302/149, 324/34, 323 and
(1) Common object of unlawful assembly has to be determined from facts and circumstances of each case.(2) Grave suspicion cannot take place of proof. It is for prosecution to prove its case beyond re....
The assembly of individuals armed with deadly weapons, with a common intent to commit violence, constitutes an unlawful assembly under IPC, leading to vicarious liability for all members.
The court clarified that to establish liability for murder under joint criminal enterprise, a common object must be proved, which was not present in this case.
Power of High Court is very limited and as a general rule the High Court will not interfere in revision against the order of acquittal unless there is a gross error of law.
The court emphasized that all members of an unlawful assembly may be held liable for murder, reaffirming the interpretation of common intention under Section 149 IPC.
The main legal point established in the judgment is the application of Section 149 IPC to determine the common object of the unlawful assembly and the vicarious liability of the accused, as well as t....
The evidence must establish a premeditated intent to commit murder and the existence of an unlawful assembly with the common object of committing murder to support a conviction for murder under Secti....
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