Order on Board

15.11.2022

1. This Criminal Revision has been preferred by the accused/Applicant against the impugned judgment dated 17.09.2014 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jashpur in Criminal Appeal No.63/2013 whereby, he has been convicted under Section 304-A IPC and sentenced to undergo RI for one year with fine of Rs.1,000/-

with usual default stipulation.

2. Case of the prosecution in brief is that on 10.12.2012, father of the deceased namely Mohan Ram (PW-1) gave merg intimation alleging that on the date of incident at about 2.30 in the noon, while his son deceased Nand Kumar was going to school on his foot from the side of Manbahal Chouhan’s shop, then the present Applicant while driving his pickup vehicle bearing No.CG 15 AC 0864 in a rash and negligent manner, dashed him and thus caused injury on the back side of his head. The deceased died while being taken to the hospital. FIR (Ex.P-1) was registered vide Crime No.216/2012 at P.S Kansabel, District Jashpur. During enquiry, Panchanama of incident (Ex.P-4) was prepared and the vehicle was seized from the possession of the present Applicant vide Ex.P-5. Postmortem was conducted vide Ex.P-5 by Dr. Sunil Lekhas (PW-5) vide Ex.P-8 in which, he opined that cause of death was head injury on account of a road accident. Spot map (Ex.P-9) was prepared. Statement of the witnesses have been recorded and the Applicant has been arrested on 10.12.2012.

3. After completion of investigation, charge has been filed and the prosecution has examined as many as 12 witnesses and exhibited 16 documents vide Exs.P-1 to 16A. The Applicant has abjured his guilt and examined one witness in his defence. Statement of the accused/ Applicant was also recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which, he denied the allegations levelled against him and pleaded innocence and false implication in the case. 4. After conclusion of trial, upon appreciation of oral and documentary evidence available on record, the trial Court has convicted the Applicant and sentenced him as mentioned above, which was allowed by the appellate Court. Hence this Revision.

5. At the outset, Shri Agrawal, learned counsel for the Applicant submits that he is not seriously disputing the judgment of conviction and only submits that the incident took place 10 years ago and the Applicant is aged 22 years having no criminal past, therefore, considering all these aspects, he may be sentenced to the period already undergone by him.

6. Per contra, Shri Thakur, learned State Counsel strongly supported the impugned judgment and submitted that the Applicant has rightly been convicted for the offence under the said Section and therefore, the same does not call for any interference either on merits or on the sentence part.

7. I have heard learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record of the Court below with utmost circumspection.

8. It is evident from the postmortem report (Ex.P-8) of the deceased Nand Kumar that cause of death was head injury and Dr. Sunil Lekhas (PW-5) has proved his report by stating that the death was caused on account of a road accident. Manbahal Ram (PW-2) has also categorically deposed that on the date of accident, he was in his shop, the present Applicant dashed the deceased and thereafter, ran way. Santosh Kumar (PW-3) has also given a similar version that after the incident, the people nearby have tried to stop the vehicle of the Applicant but he did not stop and ran away. Thereafter two persons chased him with their motorcycle and stopped him but nothing could be elicited from the cross-examination of these witnesses. Father of the deceased Mohan Ram (PW-1) after having known the incident, lodged the FIR at police station Kansabel vide Ex.P-1 and thereafter, merg was registered vide Ex.P-2. Head Constable Narendra Bhat (PW-9) has prepared the spot map (Ex.P- 4). The vehicle involved in the accident was seized from the possession of present Applicant and was proved by Narendra Bhat