K.T.THOMAS, J. - (1.) THREE brothers were charged for implementing a designed criminal conspiracy for elimination of one who was their bete noire. The sessions court and the High Court concurrently found them guilty of Section 120-B and Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and consequently they were convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life besides payment of some fine. These appeals, by special leave have been filed by the aforementioned three brothers.
(2.) THE person who was murdered in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy - Tara Chand - was the factorum of Jail Paul (PW-13) with whom appellants had scores to settle for long. Prosecution case, briefly, is that on the morning of 9.5.1990 the three appellants had a dig at Smt. Kiran Chauhan (wife of Jai Paul) and it resulted in the initiation of a proceeding under Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against them. Appellants were infuriated by it and the acerbity between the two factions got aggravated further. At about 6.00 p.m. the three appellants together preceded to a glade situate near a jungle where deceased Tara Chand was working and showered blows on him with gandasi and chhura (both cutting weapons). The victim made a loud cry which attracted the attention of some people in the proximity who rushed to the spot, but in the meanwhile the assailants took to their heels towards the jungles. Those who reached the spot found Tara Chand lying dead in a pool of blood. As there was no eye-witness for the murder, the prosecution had to rest on circumstances alone for proving that appellants have murdered Tara Chand. Sessions Court and the High found, in one accord, that the circumstances have concatenated into a complete chain pointing unerringly to the complicity of the appellants in the murder of Tara Chand.
(3.) THERE was no dispute that Tara Chand was murdered on the evening of 9.5.1990 at the place of occurrence mentioned by the prosecution. The post- mortem examination conducted on the body of Tara Chand revealed that he had a number of incised injuries, fracture of ribs, and some stab wounds. One of the stab injuries had penetrated into the abdominal cavity. Another stab wound plunging through the second and third intercostal space (right side) had caused a cut on the peritoneum. It is clear that deceased was the victim of a murderous attack inflicting many blows with cutting weapons.;