LAXMAN MUCHAKI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal No.1282 of 2014 preferred by sole appellant Laxman Muchaki and Criminal Appeal No.948 of 2016 preferred by two appellants Aytu Muchaki and Sahebo Muchaki are being disposed of by this common judgment since they arise out of the same incident.

(2.) Both the criminal appeals filed by the appellant-accused under Sec. 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure are directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 29/10/2014 passed by the Third Additional Sessions Judge, Bastar at Jagdalpur (CG) in ST No.66/2014, whereby, each of the appellants have been convicted for offence under Ss. 302/34 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.200.00, in default of payment of fine, to undergo additional imprisonment for 1 month and also under Sec. 323/34 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 6 months.

(3.) Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 6/5/2014, at 7:00 am, on account of some land dispute, deceased Bomda Muchalki, and his son Panduram (PW-4) were abused, assaulted and thrashed by the appellants in front of their house. During the scuffle, the appellants threw Bomda Muchalki on the ground and assaulted him with a stone on his head, chest and neck, due to which, he died. Panduram (PW-4) was also assaulted by hands and legs, on which, he ran away from the spot out of fear and thereby the appellants committed the offence under Ss. 302 and 323 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC. Further case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on account of some land dispute between appellant Laxman Muchaki and deceased Bomda Muchalki, on 6/5/2014, the appellants and other villagers called Bomba Muchalki while he was ploughing the field and in furtherance of a common intention, threatened, abused and assaulted the deceased and his son. In the said incident, the deceased received fatal injuries on his head, neck and other parts of the body and subsequently, he died. Thereafter, the FIR-Ex.P/7 was registered. The merg intimation was given to the Police vide Ex.P/8, inquest was conducted vide Ex.P/2 and the dead body was sent for postmortem examination, which was conducted by Dr. D.P. Bharadwaj vide Ex.-P/31, in which, he opined that the cause of death is on account of head injury, excessive external bleeding and cardio pulmonary arrest. In pursuance of the memorandum statement of appellant Laxman Muchaki-Ex.-P/10., blood stained stone was recovered vide Ex.P/11. Blood stained soil and plain soil was also recovered from the place of the incident vide Ex.P/12. Thereafter, the stone, blood stained soil and plain soil were sent for FSL examination to ascertain whether the blood was found on the aforesaid article or not. However, the FSL report would suggest that the blood was found on the aforesaid articles.