The main legal point established is the reliance on consistent prosecution evidence and medical report to support the conviction under Section 324 of IPC.

JUDGMENT :

The present criminal appeal has been filed by two appellants namely Ram Udgar Mahto and Harihar Mahto against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 28th January, 2003 from which being aggrieved and dissatisfied, the instant appeal has been preferred by the appellants.

2. The judgment impugned has been passed by Shri Madhusudan Singh, then Sessions Judge, Samastipur in Sessions Trial No.433 of 1996 by which appellant No.1 has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 324 of the Indian Penal Code (in short IPC) and he has been sentenced for the said offence to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of six months. By the impugned judgment, the appellant No.2 has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 325 of IPC and sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of six months in respect of the said offence. Here, it is relevant to mention that during the pendency of this appeal, the appellant No.2 namely Harihar Mahto died so vide order dated 10.01.2023 the present appeal stood abated in respect of the said appellant and accordingly the present appeal is now being decided in respect of appellant No.1. Further it is relevant to mention that other accused persons have been acquitted from all charges by the trial Court and the appellant No.1 has also been acquitted from the charges under Sections 341, 447, 504 and 307 of IPC.

3. The prosecution’s case, in brief, is that the informant namely Basudeo Mahto (PW-3) recorded his fardbeyan before the Police Officer of police station concerned on 22.04.1996 with this allegation that on 22.04.1996 at 5:00 p.m. he was fixing pillars on his land for erecting palani and in the meantime the appellant Ram Udgar Mahto armed with pagharia (Hasua), accused Ram Pravesh Mahto armed with Chhura, Kaushalya Devi having a piece of brick in her hand and Harihar Mahto armed with a lathi came there and started abusing him and thereafter appellant Ram Udgar Mahto assaulted him with Pagharia (Hasua) on his rib (panjara) as a result of which there was bleeding started from his body and during that course late appellant Harihar Mahto pushed the informant on the ground and he also assaulted the informant with fists, slaps and lathi causing injury at his mouth and thereafter on hearing Hulla his son namely Mithilesh Kumar came there to rescue him but both the appellants pushed him down on the ground and assaulted him with fists and slaps and thereafter on hearing Hulla his wife and co-villagers namely Sheo Kumar Mahto, Ram Pukar Mahto, Ram Bhorash Mahto alongwith other co-villagers came at the place of occurrence and then on seeing the co-villagers the accused Kaushalya Devi threw a piece of brick on informant’s son which hit him on his back and then accused Ram Pravesh Mahto threatened them on the point of Chhura by saying that he would kill them but on account of the intervention of co-villagers all the accused persons fled away from the place of occurrence.

4. On the basis of above-mentioned fardbeyan of informant Vidyapati Nagar P.S. Case No. 34 of 1996 was lodged under Sections 447, 307, 341, 504, 323, 324 and 337/34 of IPC against the appellants and others and after completing the investigation the police submitted charge-sheet against the appellants and others and thereafter cognizance of the alleged offences was taken by the Judicial Magistrate concerned who later on committed the case of the appellants to the Court of Sessions Judge and thereafter the trial of the appellants and others was started by the trial Court after framing charges against them. During the trial, the prosecution produced and examined altogether eight witnesses namely Ram Kumar Mahto (PW-1), Ram Naresh Mahto (PW-2), Basudeo Mahto (PW-3, Informant), Upendra Prasad (PW-4, retired police officer, Investigating Officer of the case), Alimuddin Ansari (PW-5, Doctor), Sumitra Devi (PW-6, wife of the informant), Mithilesh Kumar (PW-7, son of the informant) and Sitaram Mahto