M.M.Gupta - (1.) THESE are the (three appeals in which the appellants have been convicted by the Civil and Sessions Judge, Allahabad, under Section 395 read with Section 397 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years. Among them Bhai Lal appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 2948 of 1973 is stated to have died during the pendency of the appeal.
(2.) THESE appeals high-light the insecurity of our rural life. Lal Bahadur first informant of this case resides in village Kashipur within the Police circle of Nawabganj. His house faces south. To the west and south-west of his house there are a number of bamboo clumps and to the east and south of his house there is an abandoned brick-kiln. On 24-6-1968 at about 11 P. M. the male members of the house were sitting outside the house and were having a sanoke. They were talking about the sale of bullocks with Ganga Varma and his guest. After taking his meals Lal Bahadur came out of the house to give morsel to the dog. They noticed 14 or 15 dacoits had come. They surrounded the house and asked them to sit silently otherwise they would be shot. One of them deprived his mother of the Han- suli. His brothers Baij Nath Singh and Bindesari Singh tried to rush inside the house and close the doors but they were prevented from doing so by the bad characters. However his sister-in-law succeeded in chaining the door from inside. The dacoits thereafter broke open the door by axing it. The dacoits thereafter plundered the house. Lal Bahadur Singh succeeded in escaping through the western door. He raised an alarm in the village which attracted to the scene of occurrence a large number of villagers including Ram Nath, Bhajan Lal, Murli, Baijnath, Ram Shanker, Chotey Lal and others. The villagers had with them torches, lathis, ballam, pharsa and other weapons. They set fire to the Patai and Sarsenta lying to the east and also to the west of the house of Lal Bahadur. The dacoits continued their indiscriminate firing. However, to the great relief of the villagers Armed Police on hearing the news of the dacoity came on the scene. They took their position behind the bamboo clumps which are to south west of the house of Lal Bahadur. They also shouted to the villagers that they should not worry much as they had come. They also asked the dacoits to surrender otherwise they would be shot. The dacoits did not pay any heed to it and returned fire. The Police party also fired at the dacoits. Result was that one of the dacoits received fatal shot in consequence whereof the dacoits took to their heels and escaped towards the north with the booty that they could get as a result of plundering the house of Lal Bahadur. They had to leave behind them the dead body of one of their companions and a double barrel gun. It was also claimed that at the time of dacoity a lantern was burning outside the house when the dacoits came and a kerosene oil lamp was burning inside the house. After the dacoits had gone Lal Bahadur proceeded to the police station Nawabganj where he lodged the report the next morning at 5.30 A. M. on 25-6-1968. Sri Harinandan Singh S. O. Nawabganj was present at the police station at the time of lodging of the report. He left for the place of occurrence at 6.15 A. M. He commenced the investigation by recording the statement of Lal Bahadur. He found the dead body of an unidentified dacoit lying at the scene of occurrence. He also recovered a gun left by the dacoits. He got the panchayatnama prepared of the dead body and also its diagram. The dead body was duly sealed and sent for postmortem. The recovered firearm and the fired cartridges were also sealed. He found injuries on the person of Baijnath, Bindesari Singh, Ramnath, Murli, Bechu, Ram Shanker, Ramnath, Ram Kumar, Maharanidin, Shukroo, Chhotey Lal son of Ram Prasad, Ram Sajiwan and Raghunath. They were all sent for medical examination and were examined on 25-6-1968 by Dr. P. L. Nigam, Incharge Medical Officer of the Primary Health Centre, Holagarh. Excepting Raghunath rest of the injured had fire arm injuries. All these injuries at the time of their examination were caused 12 to 18 hours. The injuries received by each one of them were simple in nature.
(3.) THE autopsy on the body of the unidentified dead body of the dacoit found on the scene of occurrence was performed on 26-6-1968 at 3 P. M. by Dr. B. D. Barat, Medical Officer of the Moti Lal Nehru Hospital, Allahabad. According to him, the deceased was aged about 30 years and the duration of the death was less than two days. He had found one gun shot wound on his left palm with exit wound on the back of the left palm and a second gun-shot wound 1/4" x 1/4" x abdominal cavity on the left lumber region. It was a wound of entry with an exit wound on 4"x3 1/2" with everted margins on the left side of the abdomen and lower part left side chest, passing obliquely upwards from behind forwards loop of intestine protruding out from the exit wound. On internal examination the abdominal wall was found torn on the left side front of abdomen upper part. Stomach was badlly torn, THE death, in the opinion of Dr. Barat, was due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of injuries to the stomach, small intestines and large intestines. Sri Harinandan Singh continued his investigation on 25-6-1968. He found the main door of the house axed and found broken pieces etc. which were the evidence of the fact of the dacoity having been committed at the house of Lal Bahadur. He also recovered fired cartridges. He also found burnt ashes to the west and east of the house of Lal Bahadur Singh. He recorded the statements of the witnesses. During the pendency of the investigation the complicity of Chhotai and Bhai Lal came to be known. On 28th July, 1968 the information about the arrest of Bhai Lal and Chhotai came to be known that they were arrested by the Kunda Police in district Pratapgarh. A report for holding their identification in Pratapgarh jail was sent. They were put to identification in Pratapgarh jail on 7-9-1968. On 29-10-1968 he came to know about the arrest of Mahadeo Mali and Lal Bahadur appellants in Mohalla Ram Bagh by a police party headed by Sri D. V. Mehta, Addl. Superintendent of Police, Allahabad. Their identification was conducted in Naini Central Jail, Allahabad on 19-11-1968. The firearms recovered were sent for comparison to expert with the empties recovered on the scene of occurrence.;