Court emphasized that personal vendetta not motivated by caste does not support charges under SC & ST Act; conviction modified from grievous to simple injury under IPC based on nature of the injuries.

JUDGMENT :

S.S. Mishra, J.

The present Criminal Appeal, filed by the appellants are directed against the judgment and order dated 20.09.1999 passed by the learned District & Sessions Judge, Ganjam-Gajapati in Sessions Case No.213 of 1998, whereby the appellants have been convicted for the offences under Sections 325/34 of I.P.C. and on that count, they are sentenced to undergo R.I. for two years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- each, in default, to undergo R.I. for six months each.

2. The present appeal has been pending since 1999. When the matter was called for hearing, consistently none appeared for the appellants. Therefore, this Court requested Mr. Smruti Ranjan Dash, learned counsel, who was present in Court to assist the Court as Amicus Curiae. He has readily accepted the same and after obtaining entire record, assisted the Court very effectively. This Court records appreciation for the meaningful assistance rendered by Mr. Dash, learned Amicus Curiae.

3. Heard Mr. Smruti Ranjan Dash, learned Amicus Curiae for the appellants and Ms. Sarita Moharana, learned Additional Standing Counsel for the State.

4. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 07.04.1998 in the evening, the accused persons came to the house of the informant Bhika Naik (P.W.4) at village Chakundapalli, armed with lathies and a kati, and challenged the informant and his father as to why they had become prosecution witnesses in the case of Mochia Goudo. The accused persons abused the informant and his father in obscene language and assaulted them with lathies. When Narsu Naik (P.W.3), the father of the informant, was being assaulted, the mother of the informant intervened and lay over her husband in an attempt to save him, whereupon the accused persons dealt lathi blows on the old lady. Seeing the murderous assault on his parents, the informant and his wife protested, but they too were attacked. The wife of the informant sustained kati blows on her left hand, while the informant was assaulted with lathies. On hearing the commotion, some villagers rushed to the spot, upon which the accused persons fled away. The parents of the informant were immediately shifted to Bhanjanagar Hospital, where, after some time, the informant’s mother Budhubari Naik succumbed to her injuries. Narsu Naik remained hospitalized for a considerable period of time and ultimately survived with a deformed limb. The informant and his wife were also medically examined and treated for their injuries. On the basis of the report lodged by the informant, the police took up investigation and, on completion thereof, submitted charge-sheet against the accused persons for the offences punishable under Sections 452/304/307/325/324/323/34 of I.P.C. read with Section 3(1)(x) of the SC & ST (PoA) Act. On the stance of complete denial and claim of trial, the appellants were put to trial after framing of charges.

5. The prosecution in order to prove its case examined nine witnesses. Out of whom, P.W.4 is the informant, P.W.3 is the father of the informant, P.W.2 is the wife of the informant. P.Ws. 1 and 5 were the neighbours of the informant. P.W.6 was the doctor, who conducted postmortem examination on the dead body of Budhubari Naik on police requisition, P.W.7 was the another doctor, who examined injured persons Basanti Naik, Narsu Naik, Bhika Naik and Budhubari Naik on police requisition. P.W.9 was the police officer, who conducted investigation and P.W.8 was the police officer, who ultimately took charge from P.W.9 and submitted the charge-sheet. Besides the oral evidence, the prosecution also proved several documents, like, F.I.R, seizure lists, inquest report, P.