IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that witness testimonies must be corroborated by additional evidence to sustain a conviction, especially when significant omissions exist in the FIR.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. Invoking criminal appellate jurisdiction of this Court, the present two criminal appeals, under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, ‘CrPC’) has been filed by three appellants herein i.e. A-1 Manoj Soni and A-2 Monu @ Gajpati Soni, who have filed Criminal Appeal No.372 of 2018, and A-3 Ajeet Singh Kanwar, who has filed Criminal Appeal No.366 of 2018, calling in question the legality, validity and correctness of the Judgment dated 22.2.2018 passed by learned Special Judge under Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, District Korba (Trial Court) in Special Criminal Case No.03 of 2017.

2. By the impugned Judgment dated 22.2.2018, each of the three appellants herein (A-1, A-2 & A-3) has been convicted for offences under Sections 147, 148 and 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, ‘IPC’) and sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for 06 months and to pay Fine of Rs.100/- and in default of payment of fine to suffer additional Rigorous Imprisonment for 15 days for offence under Section 147 of IPC, to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for 01 year and to pay Fine of Rs.200/- and in default of payment of fine to suffer additional Rigorous Imprisonment for 01 month for offence under Section 148 of IPC and further to undergo Life Imprisonment and to pay Fine of Rs.5000/- and in default of payment of fine to suffer additional Rigorous Imprisonment for 06 months for offence under Section 302/149 of IPC, with a direction to run all the substantive sentences concurrently, while acquitting the co-accused person i.e. A-4 Naveen Kashyap of all the aforesaid offences.

3. Case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that on 25.11.2016 around 8:00 p.m., at Shantinagar, Balgi under Police Station Bankimongra, the three appellants herein i.e. A-1 Manoj, A-2 Monu and A-3 Ajeet along with other co-accused persons i.e. A-4 Naveen Kashyap (who stands acquitted by the Trial Court) and one juvenile in conflict with law, constituted an unlawful assembly and in furtherance of their common object caused riot and death of Banmali @ Banwari (deceased) assaulting him with knife, bricks and stones, knowing that the deceased Banmali was a member of a Scheduled Tribe.

4. It is the case of the prosecution that PW-9 Kedar Sahu had first informed about the said incident to PW-11 Itwar Singh, father of deceased Banmali, who immediately after 1½ hours of the incident that took place around 8:00 p.m., lodged the FIR (Ex. P-38) at 9:30 p.m. at Police Station Bankimongra, District Korba. Subsequently, Merg Intimation (Ex. P-36) was recorded. Crime Details Form (Ex. P-39) was prepared by PW-15 S.K. Pathak, the Investigating Officer and Nazri Naksha (Ex. P-12) was prepared by PW-5 Chhatrapal Singh Maravi, the Patwari. Inquest (Ex. P-14) was conducted and the dead-body of the deceased Banmali was subjected to post-mortem which was conducted by PW-12 Dr. R.S. Kanwar who submitted his post-mortem report (Ex. P-40) opining the cause of his death to be hemorrhagic shock and the nature of death to be homicidal. Seizure of blood mixed earth, plain earth, a bloodstained stone, four bloodstained bricks and a Karizma motorcycle was made from the spot vide Ex. P-16. Similarly, two shirts and a jacket were also seized from the spot vide Ex. P-17. Statement of the witnesses were recorded under Section 161 of CrPC. Memorandum statement of A-1 Manoj was recorded vide Ex. P-18 pursuant to which, a full-shirt stained with blood like spots was seized vide Ex. P-22. Similarly, pursuant to the memorandum statement (Ex. P-19) of A-2 Monu, a full-shirt and trouser both stained with blood like spots were seized vide Ex. P-23. So also, pursuant to the memorandum statement (Ex.20) of A-3 Ajeet, a shirt and jeans pant both stained with blood like spots were seized vide Ex.24. As per Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report (Ex. P-66), human blood was found on the stone (Ex. C) & bricks (Ex. D) seized fro