The central legal point established in the judgment is the application of Section 149 of the IPC, which holds every member of an unlawful assembly responsible for the commission of a crime by any member of the assembly in furtherance of the common object.

L.C. Bhadoo, J.

1. The Appellants have preferred this appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 20th December, 2001 passed by the 7th Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur in Sessions Trial No. 71/2001, whereby learned Additional Sessions Judge, after holding the accused/appellants guilty for commission of offence under Sections 148, 302 read with Sections 149 & 323 read with Section 149 of the IPC, sentenced each of the accused/ appellants to undergo R.I. for two years, imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default of payment of fine to further undergo R.I. for six months and R.I. for one year, respectively.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 25th October, 2000 some altercation took place between Ashish Dubey (since deceased) and accused Yugal. Ashish Dubey called accused Yugal as Bhootnath, therefore, Yugal abused Ashish Dubey whereupon, Ashish Dubey gave beating to Yugal on which Yugal threatened Ashish that he will see him. On the fateful day i.e. 27-10-2000 Ashish Dubey & Bharat (eye-witnesses) were standing at Changorabhathain the field of boys hostel. Accused Yugal, Laxmi, Umesh, Shankar, 20 other named accused persons and one juvenile offender Neelu alias Tulsiram came there abusing and carrying Lathi, Danda, rod & Farsi in their hands. They were talking to attack Ashish Dubey, therefore, Ashish Dubey ran towards the house of Sarpanch. The accused persons chased him, after encircling him started abusing and saying that he had beaten Yugal, therefore, they will not leave him. All the accused persons started attacking Ashish Dubey with Lathi, club, Gupti, rod & sword. When Bharat ran towards Ashish Dubey to intervene, they attacked Bharat also. Ashish Dubey became unconscious and fell down. He sustained multiple injuries and died instantaneously. Bharat also sustained simple injuries on head & hand. Manish Thakur & Parmanand were also present there, they witnessed the incident.

3. The police were informed and receiving the information, they took Ashish Dubey & Bharat to Medical College Hospital, Raipur where the doctor declared Ashish Dubey brought dead. Bharat was got medically examined. On the information given by Bharat, Dehati Nalishi Ex. P.3 was registered. Based on the Dehati Nalishi, first information report Ex. P. 4 was registered, The Investigating Officer after giving notice Ex. P. 1, prepared inquest Ex. P-2 on the body of Ashish. Body of Ashish Dubey was sent for postmortem examination to Forensic Medicine Department, Mekahara Hospital, Raipur, where Dr. Sanjay Kumar Dadu (P.W. 9) conducted post-mortem on the body of Ashish Dubey. The doctor noticed 26 injuries on his body and opined that cause of death was shock and haemorrhage as a result of stab injury to abdomen, injury caused by hard, sharp and penetrating object. He opined that the death was homicidal in nature, injuries No. 1 to 24 were caused by hard and blunt object. Based on the memorandum of accused persons various weapons of offence were seized. Bharat was examined by Dr. S. Bist who prepared injury report Ex. P. 49 and noticed two lacerated wounds on scalp & forehead.

4. After completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, first class, Raipur, against 30 accused persons including the four appellants, who in turn committed the case to the Sessions Judge, Raipur, from where learned 7th Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur received the case on transfer for trial.

5. In order to establish charges against the accused persons, the prosecution examined 16 witnesses. Statements of the accused persons were recorded under Section 313 of the Cr. P.C. in which they denied the material appearing against them in the prosecution evidence and stated that they have been implicated in a false case. Learned Additional Sessions Judge after hearing counsel for respective parties, convicted and sentenced the four accused/appellants as aforementioned, whereas acquitted other