IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that a sudden quarrel without premeditation led to a conviction under Section 304 Part II IPC, rather than murder under Section 302 IPC.

JUDGMENT :

(S.V. Pinto, J.)

1. These appeals have been filed by the appellants - original accused Nos. 1 and 2 and 3 respectively under Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the judgement and order dated 18.09.2014 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Tapi at Vyara (here in after referred to as the ”learned Trial Court”) in Sessions Case No. 09 of 2014. Both the appeals have arisen out of the same impugned judgement and order and hence, are disposed off by this common judgement.

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

2. The brief facts necessary to decide the appeal are in a nutshell as under:

2.1 As per the case of the prosecution on 01.12.2013, at around 06.30 hours in the Big Street at Village Karanjvel, Taluka Vyara, District Tapi, all the accused demanded the two vighas land belonging to Kadiyabhai Dhanjibhai Gamit for cultivation and as he refused to give the land for cultivation to them, all the accused took sticks and hit him on his back, hands, legs, and other parts of his body and he sustained fracture injuries on his left hand and left leg and the accused No. 1 caught the private part of Kadiyabhai Dhanjibhai Gamit and pulled and twisted it and as he shouted and made a hue and cry, all the accused ran away. The injured was taken to Referral Hospital, Vyara where he was treated and as the injuries were more serious, he was referred to the Higher Centre for further management but his son Jayantibhai Kadiyabhai Gamit did not have money for his treatment and did not take him to the Higher Centre for treatment but brought him home and on the same day at around 5:30 PM, he succumbed to his injuries. The complaint was filed by Jayantibhai Kadiyabhai Gamit at Vyara Police Station under Sections 302, 34 of the IPC which was registered at I C R No. 178 of 2013.

2.2 The Investigating Officer drew the necessary panchanamas, recorded the statements of the connected witnesses, collected the muddamal, sent the dead body of the deceased for postmortem, sent the Muddamal to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad for analysis, arrested all the accused and after the FSL analysis reports were received a chargesheet came to be filed before the Court of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Tapi at Vyara and as the case was exclusively triable by the Sessions Court, Tapi at Vyara, a committal order was passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate under Section 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the case was registered as Sessions Case No. 09 of 2014.

2.3 The accused were produced before the learned Trial Court and it was verified whether the procedure under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was followed and a charge was framed against all the accused at Exh. 6 and the statements of the accused were recorded at Exhs. 7, 8 and 9 respectively. The accused denied all the contents of the charge and the prosecution examined 13 witnesses and produced 13 documentary evidences in support of their case. After the learned APP filed the closing pursis at Exh. 42, the further statement of the accused under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were recorded wherein all the accused denied all the evidences of the prosecution and refused to step into the witness box or examine witnesses on their behalf and stated that they were innocent. The learned Trial Court heard the arguments of the learned APP and the learned advocate for the accused and by the impugned judgement and order was pleased to find all the accused guilty for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and sentenced all the accused to simple imprisonment for life and fine of ?20000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand only) each and in default to simple imprisonment for three years.

3. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgement and order of conviction, the appellant - original accused no. 1 has filed Criminal Ap