An FIR alone cannot substantiate conviction; reliance on a hostile witness and inadequate evidence led to the acquittal of the accused.

JUDGMENT :

SANJAY K. AGRAWAL, J.

1. Regard being had to the similitude of the questions of fact and law involved and being arising out of a common impugned judgment dated 28.11.2015, all these criminal appeals are clubbed together, heard together and being disposed of by this common order.

2. Invoking criminal appellate jurisdiction of this Court, total 04 accused/appellants, namely, Baital Sahu (A-1), Krishna Yadav @ Chhotu (A-2), Vinod Yadav (A-3) and Manish Singh Rajput (A-4), have preferred these 03 appeals being CRA-1598-2015, CRA-1525- 2015 & CRA-1630-2015 respectively, under Section 374(2) of Cr.P.C., calling in question the legality, validity and correctness of common impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 28.11.2015, passed in Session Trial No. 24 of 2014 ( State of Chhattisgarh v. Baital Sahu and others ) by the Addl. Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon (CG), whereby they have been convicted for offence under Section 302/34 of IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with fine of Rs.1,000/- and, in default of payment of fine, sentenced to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for 01 month.

3. The case of the prosecution, in short, is that on 29.06.2014, in the night at about 12-12:30 PM, at Pendrikala, Near Banjari Mandir, which comes within the ambit of Police Station Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon (CG), the accused-appellants herein, in furtherance of their common intention, assaulted Prakash Sahu and Kanwar Devar (PW-03) by means of wooden stick and iron rod, due to which, Prakash Sahu (hereinafter referred to as the “deceased”) suffered grievance injuries and died, whereas, Kanwar Devar (PW- 03) also suffered injuries, which were sufficient in ordinary course to cause his death and, thereby, the appellants herein are said to have committed offences under Sections 302/34 & 307/34.

4. It is further case of the prosecution that immediately after the incident, when the aforesaid incident was reported to the police by Kanwar Devar (PW-03), merg intimation (Ex.P/12) and FIR (Ex.P/15) were registered and wheels of investigation started running, in which, spot map was prepared. Summons under Section 175 of CrPC were sent vide Ex.P/17 and inquest proceedings were conducted vide Ex.P/16. The dead-body of the deceased was sent for postmortem examination, which was conducted by Dr. Jitendra Kumar (PW-06) and, as per PM report (Ex.P/22), it has been opined that cause of death of the deceased is shock and hemorrhage as a result of antemortem injuries to liver. The accused/appellants were arrested and their memorandum statements were recorded vide Ex.P/01 to P/03 & P/19. Thereafter, pursuant to the memorandum statement of the accused-appellants following articles were seized:

5. Thereafter, the seized articles were sent for chemical examination and, as per FSL report (Ex.P/35), it has been opined that stains of human blood were found on all the aforesaid articles seized pursuant of to the memorandums statements of the appellants herein i.e. rod, wooden stick and their clothes. After statements of witnesses were recorded and due investigation, the police filed charge-sheet against the appellants/accused persons in the competent criminal court having jurisdiction and, thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions for hearing and trial in accordance with law, in which the appellants/accused abjured their guilt and entered into defence by stating that they are innocent and have been falsely implicated.

6. The prosecution in order to prove its cas