JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal has been filed by the appellant under Section 374 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of conviction passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge and Presiding Officer, First Fast Track Court, Valsad, (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Sessions Case No. 78 of 2006 on 14.12.2006, whereby, the learned Trial Court has convicted the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code and the appellant has been sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 25,000/- and in default, to undergo further simple imprisonment for six months.

The parties are referred to as they stood in the original case for the sake of convenience, clarity and brevity.

2. The brief facts that emerge from the record of the case are as under:

2.1 That on 11.06.2005, at around 06.30 pm, the accused went into the house of Lallubhai Budhabhai Ahir in village Sarigam and hit Lallubhai Budhabhai Ahir on the back side of the head and on the neck and caused him grievous injury. That Jashiben Lallubhai Ahir – wife of Lallubhai Budhabhai Ahir filed a complaint on 18.06.2005 in the Umargam Police Station under Sections 323, 504, 325 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code which was registered as I C.R. No. 153/2005 and after due investigation a charge-sheet case was filed before the Court of Ld. Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Umargam on 22.12.2005 which was registered as Criminal Case No. 1180/2005. That Lallubhai Budhabhai Ahir expired on 06.07.2005 and the complainant filed Special Criminal Application No. 1647/2005 before this Court and as per the order dated 12.12.2005, the Investigating Officer filed a supplementary charge-sheet before the Court of the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Umargam under Sections 302, 323, 325, 504 and 506(2) of the Indian Penal Code which came to be registered as Criminal Case No. 222/2006. That both the charge-sheets were committed to the Court of Sessions, Valsad as the charge-sheets were of the same offence and the offence was triable exclusively by the Court of Sessions and Criminal Case No. 1180/2005 under Section 323, 325, 504 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code came to be registered as Sessions Case No. 79/2006 and Criminal Case No. 222/2006 under Section 302, 323, 325, 504 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code came to be registered as Sessions Case No. 78/2006. That as the facts in both the cases were same and were arising out of the same incident, the learned Trial Court consolidated the charge-sheets and a charge was framed against the accused at Exh. 1 and the statement of the accused was recorded at Exh. 2, wherein, the accused denied all the contents of the charge and the evidence of the prosecution was taken on record. The prosecution has examined 13 witnesses and produced 19 documentary evidences to bring home the charge against the accused and after the closing pursis at Exh. 42 was submitted by the learned APP, the further statement of the accused under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was recorded. That after the arguments of the learned APP and learned advocate for the accused were heard, the learned Trial Court was pleased to acquit the accused from the offence punishable under Section 302, 323, 504 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code under Section 235(1) of Code of Criminal Procedure and convicted the accused under Section 235(2) of Code of Criminal Procedure for the offence punishable under Section 325 of Indian Penal Code and sentenced the accused to two years simple imprisonment and fine of Rs. 25,000/- and in default, further simple imprisonment for a period of six months. That the learned Trial Court also directed that an amount of Rs. 20,000/- be paid to the legal heirs of deceased Lallubhai Kushalbhai Ahir from the amount of fine of Rs. 25,000/- paid by the accused under Section 357 of Code of Criminal Procedure.

3. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied with