2025:CGHC:29282-DB VISHAKHA AFR BEOHAR Digitally signed by VISHAKHA BEOHAR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRA No. 1345 of 2019

1 - Madhav Yadav S/o Ruplal Yadav Aged About 25 Years R/o Village - Kotmar, Police Station - Chakradharnagr, District Raigarh Chhattisgarh. 2 - Ajay Yadav @ Konda S/o Vedram Yadav Aged About 24 Years R/o Village - Kunjedabri, Police Station - City Kotwali, Raigarh, District Raigarh Chhattisgarh.

... Appellants versus

1 - State of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station -

Chakradharnagar, District Raigarh Chhattisgarh. ... Respondent For Appellant : Mrs. Indira Tripathi, Advocate For Respondent/State : Mr. Ashish Shukla, Addl. A.G. For Complainant : Mr. Abhishek Saraf, Advocate Division Bench Hon'ble Smt. Justice Rajani Dubey, J. &

Hon'ble Shri Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad, J.

Order on Board

01.07.2025 Per, Amitendra Kishore Prasad, J.

1. This criminal appeal preferred by the appellants herein under Section 374(2) of the Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 05.09.2019 passed in Sessions Trial No.93/2018 by the 5^th Additional Sessions Judge, Raigarh, C.G., by which, the appellants stand convicted & sentenced as under:-

Conviction for committing Sentence murder of Manohar Rathiya Under Section 302 read with 34 Imprisonment for life and fine of of Indian Penal Code (for short, Rs.1,000/-, in default of payment ‘IPC’) of fine additional simple imprisonment for one year to each appellants Under Section 201 read with 34 Rigorous Imprisonment for seven of IPC years and fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default of payment of fine additional rigorous imprisonment for one month to each appellants Conviction for committing Sentence murder of Shyamlal Rathiya Under Section 302 read with 34 Imprisonment for life and fine of of Indian Penal Code (for short, Rs.1,000/-, in default of payment ‘IPC’) of fine additional simple imprisonment for one year to each appellants Under Section 201 read with 34 Rigorous Imprisonment for seven of IPC years and fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default of payment of fine additional rigorous imprisonment for one month to each appellants (Both sentences were directed to run concurrently)

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that in the intervening night of

23.05.2018 at around 6:30 pm to 24.05.2018 at about 8:00 am, at village Karichhapar, within the jurisdiction of Police Station Chakradharnagar, District Raigarh, C.G., appellants herein, in furtherance of their common intention, committed murder of deceased persons namely Manohar Rathiya and Shyamlal Rathiya and in order to conceal the evidence, appellants hid the dead body of deceased- Manohar Rathiya inside a cement pipe of canal which was 10 kms away from the place of incident, whereas also threw the dead body of deceased- Shyamlal Yadav in the river and thereby committed the aforesaid offences.

3. Further case of the prosecution is that on 24.05.2018, PW-3 Bhup Singh, lodged a report at Police Station Chakradharnagar, stating that on the same day at around 8:00 am, a commotion arose in the village regarding the discovery of two dead bodies lying at different locations. One dead body was found inside a cement pipe near the Sapnai canal, while the other was found lying in the Sapnai river and there were blood stains on the roadside going from Kotmar and Karichhapar and an orange-coloured gamchha was also found tied below the road. After that, dead body of the deceased were recovered from the above mentioned places. On the basis of above report, Dehati merg intimations vide Exs.P-13 & 14 and merg intimations vide Exs.P-15 & 16 were recorded. Thereafter, Ex.P-12 Dehati First Information report and vide Ex.P- 17, First Information Report were registered against the unknown persons. Inquest proceedings were conducted vide Ex.P-2 and dead body of deceased persons were sent for postmortem examination which was conducted by PW-9 Dr. Rajesh Goswami and PW-10 Dr. Devraj Chouhan, wh