The prosecution must establish a direct nexus between the assault and the cause of death to justify a conviction under Section 304 Part-II of the IPC.

JUDGMENT

1. This appeal has been filed under Section 374 (2) of the Cr.P.C. against the judgment dated 15/10/1997 passed by Ist Additional Sessions Judge, Rewa in S.T. No.173/1990, whereby learned Sessions Judge found appellants guilty and convicted and sentenced them as under :

2. Brief facts of the case are that on 25/10/1988 at around 6:30 a.m., Ram Gopal left his house to go to Pahi, on the way, when he reached near Shiv Prasad's house, located at village Gurheta, co-accused Shiv Prasad, his son Dinesh Kumar, appellant no.1 and Ram Naresh, appellant no.2 came out from their house armed with sticks, spear and knife, they stopped Ram Gopal and assaulted him with the stick, spear and knife and also abused him. On hearing shouting, Ram Gopal's son Sampat Kumar (PW-7), Daya Shankar (PW-8) and wife Yashoda (PW-9) came there to rescue him, then they also assaulted them. At this time, two other unknown persons (later their names came to be learnt as Hardayal and Sualal @ Rajmani) also came on the spot from the side of Shiv Prasad's house, they also assaulted them due to which Ram Gopal, Daya Shankar, Sampat Kumar and Yashoda sustained injuries. On hearing the shouting, Vishale kurmi, Ram Jivan (PW-10) and other people came to the spot, who saw the incident and rescued Ram Gopal and other injured. Ram Gopal lodged the report (Ex.P-11) of the incident at PS Mauganj on the same day, which was written by Yash Narayan Sharma (PW14) and registered Crime no.191/1988 for the offence punishable under Sections 341, 294, 324, 323 and 34 of the IPC and investigated the matter. Police sent Ram Gopal, Dayashankar, Sampat Kumar and Yashoda for medical examination, where Dr. Chandrika Prasad Dwivedi (PW1) examined them and gave MLC reports (Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-4) respectively. Further investigation was conducted by Brij Narayan Dwivedi (PW-16), he recorded the case diary statements of prosecution witnesses Sampat Kumar (PW-7), Daya Shankar (PW-8), Yashoda (PW-9), Laxman Prasad (PW3), Jhadu (PW4) Ramjivan (PW-10), Ramvishal (PW-12) and Maksudan (PW-13) also prepared spot map (Ex.P-9). On 2/11/1988 Ram Gopal died due to the injuries sustained by him in the incident during treatment in the hospital. Maksudan (PW-13) lodged the report (Ex.P-12) in this regard at PS Mauganj. On that report, Brij Narayan Dwivedi (PW- 16) went to the hospital and prepared an inquest memo (Ex.P-10) of the dead body of deceased Ram Gopal. He also registered inquest no.39/1988 (Ex.P-17) at P.S. Mauganj and sent the dead body of Ram Gopal for postmortem along with the application (Ex.P-5A), where Dr. Chandrika Prasad Dwivedi (PW-1) conducted the autopsy of the dead body of Ram Gopal and gave postmortem report (Ex.P-5). Police also arrested the appellants and co-accused and prepared arrest memos (Ex.P-19 to Ex.P- 22) and also seized one knife from the possession of appellant no.1 Dinesh, one stick from the possession of co-accused Shiv Prasad and prepared seizure memos (Ex.P-15 and P-16) and after investigation filed the charge she