2026:CGHC:1892-DB ROHIT NAFR KUMAR CHANDRA HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR Digitally signed by ROHIT KUMAR CHANDRA CRA No. 1260 of 2021 Barjesh Pandey S/o Kishan Pandey, aged about 20 years R/o Premnagar Colony P.S. And District Kondagaon Chhatttisgarh.

--- Appellant versus State of Chhattisgarh Through - Aarakshi Kendra Kondagaon District Kondagaon Chhattiagarh.

--- Respondent CRA No. 1886 of 2022 Rahul Shrivastava S/o Shankarlal Shrivastava, aged about 18 years R/o Premnagar Kondagaon, PS Kondagaon District Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh --- Appellant Versus State of Chhattisgarh Through Police Station Kondagaon, District Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh --- Respondent ________________________________________________________

For Appellant in CRA 1260/2021 : Mr. Vikash A. Shrivastava, Advocate For Appellant in CRA 1886/2022 : Mr. Kamlesh Patel, Advocate For Respondent/State : Mr. S.S. Baghel, Govt. Advocate ________________________________________________________

Hon'ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon’ble Shri Ravindra Kumar Agrawal , Judge Judgment on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

13.01.2026

1. Since both the above-captioned appeals arise out of a common factual matrix and common judgment, this Court is disposing of both these appeals by a common judgment.

2. Both these Criminal Appeals have been preferred under Section

374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, ‘the CrPC’) against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 06.09.2021 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge (F.T.C.) Kondagaon, District – Kondagaon (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No. 34/2019 and Consolidated Case No. 55/2019 by which both the accused/ appellants have been convicted and sentenced in the following matter with a direction to run all the sentences concurrently :-

A ccused - Barjesh Pandey :

Accused – Rahul Shrivastava :

3. The prosecution case, in brief, is that the complainant Parasram Sinha appeared at the Kondagaon police station on 02.02.2019 and lodged an oral report that Roshan Yadav, Supervisor of the E- Com Courier Service Centre office, was murdered by unknown persons on the night of 01.02.2019 and they fled after looting the daily collection of the Courier Centre amounting to Rs. 1 lakh 50 thousand and other items. On the information of the complainant, the inquest report of the death of Roshan Yadav and FIR No. 35/2019 under sections 450, 394, 302 of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Kondagaon police station vide Ex.P-1 and Ex.P-4 respectively.

4. Investigating Officer left for scene of occurrence and after summoning the witnesses vide Ex.P-5, inquest over the dead body of deceased Roshan Yadav was prepared vide Ex.P-6 and thereafter the dead body was sent to RNT District Hospital, Kondagaon for conducting postmortem vide Ex.P-18, wherein Dr.Sanjay Basak (PW-5) conducted postmortem over the dead body of deceased and on external examination, he found following injuries :

(i) A ligature mark, clearly and consistently caused by the tightening of a cable wire, was found above the hyoid bone on the upper neck, measuring 1.5 inches x 1/2 inch.

(ii) A ligature mark was present on both wrists, measuring 8 inches x 1/2 inch.

(iii) A ligature mark was present on both ankles, measuring 10 inches x 1/2 inch.

He removed the cable wire from all three ligature marks, sealed it, and handed it over to the police.

(iv) A cut wound was present on the front of the head, measuring 1 inch x 1/2 inch.

(v) A blood clot was present on the right ear.

(vi) A swelling was present on the right shoulder, measuring 1 inch in circumference.

(vii) Two cut wounds were present on the back of the head, in the occipital region. The bone in the occipital region was fractured and bleeding.

(viii) Three small swellings were present on the head, one above the temple. Abrasion marks were also found on the right neck.

According to Doctor, the cause of death was suffocation and shock which was caused due to strangulation and rupture of intestine.