KARU PASWAN Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH the appea 'swere heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment as both of them arise out of the same judgment.

(2.) THE prosecution story, as disclosed in the fardbeyan of the informant which was recorded on the alleged date of occurrence at 10.00 A.M. in front of the house of the deceased, is that on 14.11.1995 at about 7.00 A.M. the wife of Umesh Paswan was making cow dung cakes in course of which some water fell down on the ground on account of which there was some altercation between the wives of Rajo Paswan and Umesh Paswan. There was exchange of abuses between them. After some time the appellant Rajo Paswan came out of the house and at about the same time the deceased, namely, Parmeshwar Paswan and his wife Girja Devi also came out from their house and tried to pacify the quarrel, whereupon, the appellant Rajo Paswan told to the informant that why he permitted Raghunandan Paswan to take water and when this altercation was going on, the appellants Rajo Paswan and Maula Paswan gave threats to teach lesson and soon thereafter Rajo Paswan, Maula Paswan, Umesh Paswan, Raj Kumar Choudhary, Karu Paswan, Jagdish Paswan, Pramila Devi and Bhola Paswan came at the door of the informant 'sfather - in -law being armed with various weapons. Again both the deceased tried to restrain them but to no effect and Rajo Paswan is alleged to have fired upon the informant 'sfather -in -law, namely, Parmeshwar Paswan who fell down injured and when the mother -in -law of the informant went to rescue her husband the appellant Rajo Paswan fired shot upon her also and she also fell down. It has been stated that Maula Paswan, Raj Kumar Choudhary, Karu Paswan, Jagdish Paswan and Bhola Paswan were armed with guns whereas Umesh Paswan was having a bomb in his hand and the appellant Pramila Devi threw brick bats. The informant 'sfather -in -law and mother -in -law both died at the spot. Thereafter, the above named accused persons fled away firing from their respective guns and exploded bomb. White retreating they are alleged to have stated that they had killed. It has further been alleged that appellant Bhola Paswan and Umesh Paswan exploded bombs due to which Sunita Devi, a village lady, sustained splinter injuries. The occurrence was witnessed by Chhote Paswan (P.W.2), Gopi Paswan (P.W.7), Umesh Paswan @ Bakhori Paswan (P.W.8), Basudeo Paswan (P.W.6), Doman Paswan (not examined) and many others. The motive for the alleged occurrence as disclosed in the fardbeyan of the informant is that there was dispute regarding construction of hut on a Gairmazarua land besides ill feeling prevailing between the members of the Paswan community.

(3.) CHARGES were framed against all the eight appellants under section 302 read with section 149 of the l.P.C. Appellant Rajo Paswan was separately charged under section 302 of the l.P.C. Appellant Pramila Devi was charged under section 147 of the l.P.C. and except Pramila rest seven appellants were also charged under section 148 of the l.P.C. read with section 27 of the Arms Act as also under section 3 of the Explosive Substance Act. The case of the defence as would appear from the trend of the cross -examination and suggestions given to the witnesses is that no such occurrence actually took place and there was a dacoity in the village in which the deceased received fatal injuries and due to previous grudge the informant implicated the appellants with false allegation.