DILA BAURI & ORS Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 17.3.2004/18.3.2004 [arising out of Chirkunda (Galfarbari) P.S. case no.352 of 1994] passed by the then Additional Sessions Judge XIII, Dhanbad in Sessions Trial No.242 of 1996 whereby and whereunder learned Judge having found the appellants and one Mahendra Singh guilty for committing murder of Shankar Bouri convicted the appellants and one Mahendra Singh under Sections 302 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and further to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years for the offence under Section 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) It is the case of the prosecution that on 3.11.1994 at about 5 P.M. Shankar Bouri, husband of the informant Shanti Bouri (P.W.12) had gone to the house of Mahendra Singh for playing gamble. At about 6 P.M, Shanti Bouri came to the house of Mahendra Singh in search of her husband Shankar Bouri (deceased) where she found all the appellants and Shankar Bouri playing cards. When she asked her husband to come home, he said that he will come later on. At about 7.30 P.M, one Sainul came to her house and told her that Shankar Bouri is still playing gamble. Thereafter she after taking meal retired to bed. At about 10.30 P.M, Mani Ram Bouri (P.W.10) came to her house and asked about the whereabouts of her husband, upon which she told him that he has still not returned home. On knowing this, he told her that they should go in search of him. Thereupon the informant Shanti Bouri (P.W.12) along with Pradip Bouri (P.W.2), Surendra Bahadur (P.W.5), Lakhi Kand Bouri (P.W.11), Aditya Bouri (P.W.3) and Bablu Bouri (P.W.4) came to village in search of him. In the night, they did not find him. In the morning at 6 A.M, they found a dead body lying behind the bush near dumping spot of colliery. The police reached over there to whom Shanti Bouri (P.W.12) gave her fardbeyan (Ext.1), upon which a formal FIR was drawn and case was registered as Chirkunda (Galfarbari) P.S. case no.352 of 1994 under Sections 302/201/34 of the Indian Penal Code against the appellants and one Mahendra Singh.

(3.) The matter was taken up for investigation. In that course, the police along with the informant (P.W.12) and also other witnesses, P.Ws 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 came to the house of the accused Vivek Singh where at the doorstep, they found blood spots. One brick was found smeared with blood. When they came inside the house, they found one mat over which blood spots were there. There one Muffler of Shankar Bouri was also found. Those materials were seized. The police held inquest on the dead body of the deceased and sent it for postmortem examination.