C A V Judgment

02/12/2024

1. This appeal is filed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 20.01.2004 passed by the learned 3rd Additional Sessions Judge (F.T.C.) Mungeli, Sessions Division Bilaspur, in Sessions Trial No. 29/1999 whereby the appellants have been convicted and sentenced as under :

All the appellants

Further, appellant Bhagbali Satnami is also convicted and sentenced under the arms act as under :

2. The prosecution case, in brief is that complainant Omkumar and Daresh are real brothers. They are residents of village Damapur where they are doing agriculture. On 06.10.1998 in the evening the complainant and his brother had gone to Bahara field to see the water level. The said field was earlier purchased by father of complainant namely Ridram from one Khorbahar which was already disputed. Due to this dispute, the accused who hidin the field with a common intention drove them with sticks and pistols in their hands to kill them. The complainant was running towards the village due to fear, when the accused Bhagbali near Amar Singh’s field fired at the head of complainant Omprakash with country made pistol in his hand, due to which he started bleeding as the pellets hit several parts of his body. When Daresh came to rescue his brother, he was shot near the toe of left foot and when he shouted for help, all the accused started fleeing away from there. At the time of incident, one Rajendra saw the accused running and the firing caused by Bhagbali. The incident was reported by the complainant at police station Santganga, on the basis of which, the FIR (Ex.P-1) filed.

2(i) During investigation, spot map was prepared and and after fulfilling Mulahija formalities, the injured Omkumar & Daresh got medically treated by Dr.R.Bhattacharya (P.W.9) who gave report, according to which, injured Omkumar sustained injury by fire-arm which is dangerous to life. Omkumar was further referred to District Hospital for treatment. The statements of Chaitram, Jaleshwar, Gariba, Gandhi, Omkumar, Dares Kumar were recorded by I.O. L.P. Tripathi (P.W.16).

2(ii) On the basis of memorandum statement of accused Ramprasad (Ex.P-4), one country made pistol and one Bamboo lathi were seized from him vide seizure memo (Ex.P-5) in presence of witnesses. On 02.12.1998 one bamboo stick from accused Kaushal (Ex.P-7) and a bamboo stick from accused Toran (Ex.P-8) were seized. From accused Bhagbali , a tendu stick and an empty barrel of 12 bore gun were seized by seizure memo Ex.P-9 and further one Bamboo stick was seized from accused Vakil. Further on 15.11.1998, 3 pellets were seized from complainant Omkumar vide seizure memo Ex.P-17 and on 19.11.1998 when the doctor presented, 6 pellets were taken out from the body of injured Omkumar vide Ex.P- 19. The seized articles were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar for chemical examination and got acknowledgment by Ex.P-29 and the FSL report was received by Ex.P-30. Serologist report was also received vide Ex.P-31. On receipt of document Ex.P-20 for examination of seized country made pistol and cartridges, reserve inspector S.P. Sharma examined it and gave the report as per Ex.P-21. On completion of investigation and fulfilling the formalities,charge sheet was filed against the appellant.

3. In order to bring home the charge of the appellants to the guilt, the prosecution has examined as many as 19 witnesses and exhibited 34 documents. The statements of the appellant/accused were also recorded u/s 313 of Cr.P.C., in which they denied the guilt and pleaded innocence. After hearing