JUDGMENT:

D.K. JAIN, J.:

Leave granted.

2. The three appellants in this appeal, namely, Ashok Kumar Chaudhary, Kailash Chaudhary and Baiju Chaudhary (hereinafter referred to as appellants A-1 to A-3 respectively) arrayed as accused Nos.1, 3 and 2 respectively in the charge-sheet, faced trial in Sessions Trial Case No. 187 of 1989, for having committed offences punishable under Sections 324 and 307 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short the I.P.C.). The trial court found appellants A-1 and A-3 guilty of offence under Section 324 I.P.C. and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months each. However, appellant, A-2 was found guilty of offence under Section 307 I.P.C. and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years. All the three convicts preferred common appeal to the High Court of Judicature at Patna. The High Court upheld the decision of the trial court, which has resulted in the present appeal.

3. The case of the prosecution in brief was that on 17th July, 1988 at about 6 p.m. the informant (PW-5) along with Bijoy Kumar Sanyal, Hardeo Chaudhary and Kishan Singh had gone to Dharampur Haat (Market) to make some purchases. They saw the appellants dragging a person out of the Haat towards the road. They along with some other bystanders raised halla (shouting), whereupon the informant and others reached the spot and tried to rescue the victim, who turned out to be the son of the said Hardeo Chaudhary. Meanwhile, appellant, A-3 who was carrying a Hasua and appellants, A-1 and A-2 who were carrying daggers assaulted the informant and other persons. They were badly injured. Hardeo Chaudhary sustained injuries in his abdomen whereas Bijoy Kumar Sanyal sustained dagger injuries in his chest and thigh and Kishan Singh sustained injuries on his head. The motive of occurrence was given as previous enmity.

4. Fardbeyan of the informant was recorded by the A.S.I. of Pirbahore police station and was forwarded on the next day to the officer incharge of Bidupur police station within whose jurisdiction the occurrence had taken place. On the basis of the fardbeyan, a formal F.I.R. was registered. After completion of investigation, charge- sheet was submitted against the appellants under Sections 324, 307 read with Section 34 I.P.C.

5. Out of the total nine witnesses examined by the prosecution to establish its case, five were the persons who had been injured in the assault. Relying on the testimony of the injured witnesses, the trial court convicted the appellants for the offences aforenoted. As noted above, conviction and sentences awarded to the appellants have been affirmed by the High Court.

6. Mr. P.N. Lekhi, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants has assailed the convictions on a number of grounds. Firstly, it is submitted that the incident having taken place at a public place in the evening, the prosecution ought to have examined some independent witnesses. Having failed to do so, the evidence of PW-4 and PW-5 should be discarded as being closely related to the victim Ajay Kumar, they were "highly interested" and prone to falsely implicate the appellants, particularly when PW-4 was also involved in civil and criminal litigation with one of the appellants herein.

7. We are not impressed with the argument. Though it is true that the incident having taken place near the market around 6 p.m. on 17th July, 1988, the prosecution should have attempted to secure public witnesses who had witnessed the incident, but at the same time one cannot lose sight of the ground realities that the members of the public are generally insensitive and reluctant to come forward to report and depose about the crime even though it is committed in their presence. In our opinion, even otherwise it will be erroneous to lay down as a rule of universal application that non examination of a public witness by itself gives rise to an adverse inference against the prosecution or that the testimony of a