IMPORTANT POINT
The court clarified that mere presence in an unlawful assembly does not imply guilt for murder unless direct involvement in the act causing death is established.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. Assail in the present batch of Criminal Appeals, under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short ‘CrPC’), filed by the accused/appellants herein, except Criminal Appeal No.383/2019 which has been filed by the complainant, is to the legality, validity and correctness of the Judgment dated 30.1.2019 passed by learned Fifth Additional Sessions Judge, Raigarh in Sessions Case No.27/2018, whereby the accused/appellants i.e. A-1 Vidhyanand Rathore, A-2 Rajesh Kumar Rathore, A-3 Rambhagat Rathore, A-4 Dron Kumar Rathore, A-5 Yugansh @ Golu Rathore, A-6 Rajesh Kurre, A-7 Rajkumar Sidar, A-8 Yudhisthir Rathore, A-9 Bhola Nishad, A-10 Gopal Nishad, A-11 Prashant Rathore and A-12 Vicky @ Gaurav Singh, have been convicted for offence punishable under Sections 147, 148, 294, 449 (in place of Section 458), 506 (Part-II) and 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ‘IPC’) and sentenced thereunder in the manner as mentioned in the chart given below:-

2. Criminal Appeal No.383/2019, under Section 372 of CrPC, has been filed by the complainant – Smt. Nirmala Devi Rohda (mother of deceased Arjun Rohda herein) seeking modification of the impugned Judgment dated 30.1.2019 to the extent of enhancing the sentence awarded to the appellants from life imprisonment to capital/death sentence.

Prosecution case, in brief:-

3. On 27.9.2017, A-1 Vidhyanand Rathore had purchased a set of shirt-pant from the ready-made cloth shop of the deceased Arjun Rohda, situated at Mangal Bazar, Kharsiya and on the same day in the evening around 6:30 to 7:00, A-1 Vidhyanand Rathore came back to the shop of the deceased Arjun Rohda and asked him to take back the shirt-pant which he had purchased earlier on the day and to return the money paid by him towards purchase of that shirt-pant, which the deceased Arjun Rohda denied giving him (A-1) the option to chose another set of shirt-pant in exchange of the shirt-pant earlier purchased instead of returning the money. However, A-1 Vidhyanand Rathore did not agree to that offer and started abusing and threatening the deceased Arjun Rohda and then he (A-1) made a call from his mobile phone and called his 8-10 accomplices and thereafter A-1 Vidhyanand Rathore along with A-5 Golu @ Yugansh Rathore, A-11 Prashant Rathore and Lokesh Banjare (juvenile co-accused), armed with sticks, entered into the shop of the deceased Arjun Rohda and assaulted him with hands, fists & legs and sticks as well and also vandalized his shop by damaging LED TV and chairs. During the incident PW-4 Deepak Sachdev, son of Arjun Rohda’s sister, is also said to have received certain injuries while intervening in the incident. The said incident is also said to have witnessed by PW-2 Karan @ Sajjad Ali, PW-6 Rispal @ Radhe and other staff members working in the shop of the deceased Arjun Rohda.

4. Immediately after the incident, on the report of the deceased Arjun Rohda, FIR (Ex. P-20) was lodged at 8:10 p.m in the Police Outpost, Kharsiya,