B.S. Chauhan, J. - (1.) This appeal has been preferred against the judgment and order dated 20.10.2005 passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh (Indore-Bench) in Criminal Appeal Nos. 149 and 180 of 1995, by which the High Court has dismissed the appeals against the judgment and order dated 8.2.1995 passed by the Sessions Court convicting the appellants under Sections 148, 365, 342, 323, 324 and 324/149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter called the Rs. IPC), and awarded them life imprisonment along with other punishments.
(2.) Facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are: (A) That on 21.1.1988, the First Information Report (hereinafter called as FIR) bearing No. 18/88 was lodged at 9 A.M. under Sections 148, 365, 342, 323, 324 and 324/149 IPC in the Police Station, Namli District, Ratlam by Nagu, informant/complainant, stating that on 19.1.1988 Nagu and Gangaram (PW.24) had gone to the District Court, Ratlam to attend a case and at about 3 P.M. the accused persons, namely, Ranjit (A.3), Kamal Das (A.12), Vikramsingh (both of whom died during the course of trial), Ramesh Patidar (A.4), Shantilal (A.6) and Pooran Das (A.2) reached the court compound and took Nagu and Gangaram (PW.24) on their bicycle to an iron factory on the pretext of reaching some compromise in the case and thereafter they had been taken in a truck loaded with sand to the outskirts of village Amleta. From there they had been taken to village Bhaisatiya. Nagu and Gangaram (PW.24) were assaulted by the accused persons with lathis and were asked the whereabouts of Shantilal, Shambhu and Mohan. Nagu disclosed that Shantilal was in village Bamankhedi and Shambhu, Kailash and Mohan were in village Budheda. The accused persons wrongly confined Nagu inside the house of Nandu and took away Gangaram (PW.24) with them. They brought Shantilal in a tractor in the night at 2 A.M. and put him inside the room with Nagu and locked the room from outside. On the next day, i.e., 20.1.1988 at about 8-9 A.M., they brought Kailash (PW.25), Shambhu and Gangaram (PW.24) and confined them also in the same room along with Nagu and Shantilal. After some time, they took all of them to the well of Gopal Maharaj situated at village Panched and the accused persons assaulted Shantilal with lathis as a consequence of which Shantilal became unconscious. Kailash (PW.25) and Shambhu were also assaulted. Again they took Shantilal (in unconscious condition) in the field of one Dhula Chowkidar and they assaulted Shantilal, Kailash (PW.25) and Shambhu with lathis. Shantilal died on the spot. Shambhu also received grievous injuries on his person. The accused persons left the injured persons and moved to a distance watching for the consequences. After some time, the accused persons reached near Shantilal and checked whether he was dead or alive and once they were satisfied that Shantilal was no more, they fled. (B) The FIR lodged by the complainant, Nagu was recorded by SHO Govardhan Singh (PW.30) vide Ex.P-63. Shailendra Kumar Shrivastava (PW.29) and another Police Officer reached the spot and found Shantilal dead whereas Shambhu, Gangaram (PW.24) and Kailash (PW.25) were lying there in injured condition. Shailendra Kumar Shrivastava (PW.29) prepared the inquest (Ex.P-5) of the deceased Shantilal, seized blood-stained cloth, and collected earth and blood-stained earth. He sent the dead body of Shantilal for post-mortem examination. The injured persons, namely, Nagu, Shambhu, Kailash (PW.25) and Gangaram (PW.24) were sent for medical examination to Government Hospital, Ratlam. Kanhaiya Lal Dharia, Naib Tehsildar (PW.26) recorded the statement of the injured witness, Kailash (PW.25). On 21.1.1988, Dr. M.A. Qureshi (PW.1) performed the autopsy of the deceased Shantilal and prepared the report (Ex.P-3). He also examined on the same day the injured Kailash (PW.25) and Nagu. On the same day, i.e., 21.1.1988 Dr. Virendra Singh (PW.15) examined Shambhu and also took his X-ray and found fractures of the fifth metacarpal bone of left hand, right humerus and radius bones. On the same day, Dr. Jayant Mukund Subedar (PW.16) medically examined Shambhu. However, he died in the night at 11.25 P.M. in the hospital. Dr. Jayant Mukund also examined Gangaram (PW.24). Dr. Uday Yarde (PW.17) performed post mortem of the deceased Shambhu and prepared the post-mortem report. (C) The investigation proceeded, a large number of persons were apprehended and after completion of the investigation, a charge-sheet was filed against 34 persons out of which two, namely, Vikram Singh (A.33) and Ranjit, son of Rattan Lal Patidar (A.34) died during the trial and thus, the remaining 32 accused were put to trial. The prosecution examined in total 31 witnesses and got 79 documents proved. The trial court vide judgment and order dated 8.2.1995 acquitted 22 accused and convicted 10 including the present appellants. (D) All the said 10 convicts preferred Criminal Appeal Nos. 149 and 180 of 1995. Both the said appeals were heard together and disposed of by common judgment and order dated 20.10.2005. The High Court acquitted two accused/appellants, namely, Pooran Das (A.2) and Mukesh (A.20). However, it dismissed the appeal of the remaining 8 appellants maintaining their conviction and sentences. Out of the said 8 accused, only 5 convicts approached this Court by filing this appeal and Bagadi Ram Das (A.1), Kamal Das (A.12) and Ratan (A.24) did not prefer any special leave petition against the confirmation of their conviction by the High Court. During the pendency of this appeal, Gopal Das (A.17) died. So, at present, we are concerned only with four appellants, namely, Ranjit Singh (A.3), Balaram (A.14), Ramchandra (A.18) and Shambhu (A.22).
(3.) Shri Sushil Kumar Jain, learned Counsel appearing for the appellants, has submitted that the deceased persons/complainant party had been involved in a large number of criminal cases and had created a menace as all of them were involved in cases of theft. Complaints had been filed against them and villagers had been afraid of the complainant party. The Police had been investigating theft cases against them. In fact, the complainant/deceased party had been absconding because of the pendency of cases of theft against them. One police Constable had been posted in the village to keep an eye on them. The name of Ramchandra (A.18) was not mentioned in the FIR. None of the other appellants had been named by more than one witness as being involved in the case and in respect of some of the accused the evidence of the witness had been disbelieved by the courts below, thus, it was not proper for the High Court to maintain the conviction of the appellants on the basis of the same evidence against the present appellants. All the witnesses were partisan and had falsely implicated the appellants because of enmity. Nagu, who lodged the FIR, could not be examined as died during the course of trial and therefore, the FIR lodged by him could not be relied upon. The FIR which could have been relied upon was by Dhula Chowkidar (PW.5). There was no intention on the part of the appellants to cause death, otherwise they could have eliminated the deceased persons on the very first day. According to the prosecution, some of the accused were armed with deadly weapons. The same had not been used as the deceased and other injured persons had allegedly been beaten with sticks and lathis. Injuries had been caused on non-vital parts of their bodies. Thus, their conviction cannot be maintained under Section 302 IPC even with the aid of Section 149 IPC. The prosecution case is to be disregarded as a whole. Thus, appeal deserves to be allowed.;