- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Challenge in this appeal is to the order passed by a Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court upholding conviction of the appellants for offence punishable under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the 'IPC').
(3.) Background facts according to the prosecution in a nutshell are as follows: Bitia Soren (PW-8) is the sister-in-law of Biti Murmu (hereinafter referred to as 'the deceased'). The first appellant's son fell ill and the appellants/accused were under the impression that since the deceased, Biti Murmu, is a witch, she has caused a spell on the son of the accused and, therefore, they were nurturing a grievance against the deceased. On the date of incident, when the villagers had gone to the cremation ground to cremate the dead body of a villager, Jhora Hansda, appellants Phulia Tudu and Malgo Soren, chased the deceased, Biti Murmu, and she took asylum in the house of Bitia Soren (PW-8). The appellants entered the house and caught hold of the deceased, Biti Murmu. Bitia Soren (PW-8) at that time, was engaged in dehusking paddy. The first accused caught the hands of the deceased and pulled her out and the deceased fell down. The first accused, Phulia Tudu, assaulted her with lathi and when PW-8 attempted to intervene, she was threatened with her life. The other accused was present there at that time and after the occurrence, they ran away from the place. After the return of the villagers including the husband of PW-8, information was passed on to them. Thereafter, fardbeyan, Ext.3, was given by PW-8 at Raneshwar police station at 2.30 p.m., which was registered as a crime and Ext.5 is the first information report and investigation was taken up by Bijendra Narain Singh (PW-9). PW-9, on taking up the investigation, reached the scene of occurrence, prepared the inquest report, Ext.5, and sent the dead body to the hospital with a requisition to the Doctor to conduct autopsy. On completion of investigation, charge- sheet was filed. As accused persons pleaded innocence trial was held.;