- (1.) Out of 7 accused, A2 to A6 are the Appellants before us in these two appeals.
(2.) These appeals are directed against the common judgment and order dated 7th September, 2006 of the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Criminal Appeal No. 666 of 2000. Altogether there were seven accused. One accused by name Ravi was a juvenile and, therefore, his case was separated and dealt with separately. As A1 has not preferred any appeal, we are not concerned with his case.
(3.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the case of the prosecution is that on 27th June, 1997 at 10:00 p.m. P.W. 3, 6 and the deceased were sitting and conversing with each other along with one Rangnath Sharma behind the Hotel of Jaggi Chourasia of village Katra. The deceased was the Sarpanch of the village near Katra which is part of Nayagaon. According to P.W. 3, there was sufficient light since the street lights were on apart from a chimney burning near the hotel. It was stated that the accused arrived at the spot, among whom A5 was holding a sword, A6 was holding a Farsa, A2 was having an axe while A1, A3 and A4 were having lathis. On arrival at that spot, it was alleged that A5 while abusing the deceased and making a pronouncement that he cannot escape that day, dealt with a sword blow on the head of the deceased pursuant to which blood flush out and that thereafter A6 dealt a farsa blow which also landed on the head of the deceased. Closely followed by that A2 caused an injury with an axe again on the head of the deceased, after which the deceased fell down. The other accused A1, A3 and A4 stated to have caused further injuries with lathis. P.W. 3, P.W. 6 and others. pleaded with the accused to spare the deceased upon which A5 with a warning to the deceased that he should not contest against him in future left the place of occurrence along with other accused. P.W. 3, thereafter stated to have reached the Police Station Saleha which was hardly within one kilometer from the place of occurrence where the FIR Exhibit P3 came to be registered at 10:45 p.m.;