- (1.)The appellants of these two appeals have been found guilty for offences under Section 307/34 of the Indian Penal Code by the 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Begusarai, and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/-, or in the alternative, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months.
(2.)The prosecution case was instituted with the fardbeyan of Ramashish Singh on 25.6.93 for an occurrence that had taken place in the night of 24/25th June 1993 in an orchard situated in village Porjana. The informant learnt in the morning that his son Paramanand Singh and his nephew Shiv Shankar Singh who had gone to the orchard, which they had reportedly taken on lease, were badly assaulted and were found lying in the orchard. It is the case of the informant that his son, nephew and one Vijay Singh had taken the orchard on lease. The documents of the lease were with Vijay Singh and it was looked after by the aforesaid two injured persons. On learning of the injury when the informant went to the place of occurrence, he found that several villagers including the brother of Shiv Shankar and Ram Briksh Singh had gathered at the place of occurrence. They were taken to Nazarath Hospital (which is at Mokama) in a Tata Mini Truck. It has been specifically stated that both the injured persons were unconscious as they had received several injuries on their person and were unable to disclose the names of the persons who had injured them. It is stated that the aforesaid two persons would give description of the assailants after regaining consciousness.
(3.)In this case, unfortunately, the Investigating Officer has not been examined. His examination would be very important in this case as the names of the appellants have been disclosed for the first time on 19.07.1993 by Shiv Shankar Singh at the private hospital of Dr. Nalini Ranjan Singh of Begusarai. Shockingly, there is no report from the Patna Medical College and Hospital, Patna or Begusarai Hospital, although it is the specific case of the prosecution that the injured were referred to the Patna Medical College Hospital, where they remained for about 10-14 days. They were then taken to the private clinic of Dr. Nalini Ranjan Singh. During this interim period, the Investigating Officer has not bothered to visit Nazarath Hospital or the Patna Medical College and Hospital, Patna to learn details regarding the occurrence. This missing link in the investigation and subsequently during the trial remained a mystery and has not been explained by the prosecution. This is one of the cases in which non-examination of the Investigating Officer has caused prejudice to the prosecution, specifically after the injury report of Shiv Shankar is taken into consideration.