- (1.) J. C. Gupta, J. Each of the above named appellants has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life under Section 302 read with Section 1491. P. C. to undergo 3 years R. I. under Section 325/149 I. P. C. two years R. I. under Section 324/149 I. P. C. and to undergo 6 months R. I. under Section 323/149, I. P. C. Appellants Babuwa Singh and Amar Singh nave further been sentenced to undergo R. I. for one year under Section 148 I. P. C. while the remain ing appellants have been sentenced to undergo R. I. for six months under Section 147 I. P. C. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
(2.) BY means of this appeal, the appel lants have challenged the order of convic tion and sentence dated 19-12-1980 passed by the then IX Additional Sessions Judge, Kanpur in Sessions Trial No. 5/m of 1977. In this particular case, there are two cross versions one put by the prosecu tion and the other by the accused persons. The incident occurred on account of a dispute relating to a piece of land belong ing to Gram Samaj having an area of about 5 biswas. Tbpography of the said land is depicted in the site plan Ex. ICa- 20 prepared by the Investigating Officer on spot inspection. The house of complainant Chhotey Singh, P. W. 1 opens on western side in an open piece of land. To the further west of this, a lane runs north-south. To the west of this lane, there is Bardwan (cattle shed) of the complainant Chhotey Singh. It has only one door, which opens in the east on a chabutara appurtenent to the lane running north- south and it has no out let in its west towards the disputed land. To the south of this cattle shed there is another cattle shed which belongs to ac cused Hardeo Singh. Door of this cattle shed opens in south. In front of this cattle shed there lies the house of accused Har deo Singh and others whose door opens in north in the passage leading to the dis puted land, i. e. , the access to the disputed land runs in between the cattle shed Har deo Singh and his house. According to the prosecution case, the aforesaid piece of land which belongs to Gram Samaj was in possession of com plainant Chhotey Singh for the last about 6-7 years before the date of incident which occurred on 4-7-1975. Accused Daulat Singh and accused Sughar Singh wanted to occupy forcibly the said of land and, there fore, Chhotey Singh made a complaint to Virendra Veer Singh, the Pradhan of the village about one and half years ago. Whereupon Pradhan called both the par ties and told accused Daulat Singh that until the matter was finally decided by him nobody should cause any interference and who so ever was in actual possession would continue to held the same. However, about 15-20 days prior to the date of occurrence accused Daulat Singh forcibly fixed cattle pegs in the disputed land by the side of western wall of Chhotey Singh's cattle shed and also started tethering his cattle. Finding this, Chhotey Singh approached Virendra Veer Singh-Pradhan who in turn sent Brij Lal to accused Daulat Singh to inform that he should desist from doing any mischief in the disputed land but Daulat Singh paid no heed to it. Chhotey Singh then again met the Pradhan who called accused Hardeo Singh and Daulat Singh and told them not to occupy the aforesaid land forcibly. At that time ac cused Daulat Singh and Hardeo Singh as sured the Pradhan that they would neither quarrel nor take any forcible possession but despite this assurance the accused per sons neither removed cattle pegs nor stopped tethering their cattle in the dis puted land. Chhotey Singh then reported the matter to Pradhan who thereafter is sued notices to accused persons but they refused to accept them and told the Prad han that they would not receive them but would act as desired by him.
(3.) IT is alleged that on 4-7-1975 at about 6 a. m. accused Manna Singh, Daulat Singh, Babuwa Singh, Amrit Singh, Har deo Singh, Raghunath Singh, Sughar Singh and Amar Singh formed a group and collected in the disputed land. Babuwa Singh was having 'kanta', Amar Singh a Phawara (spade), Sughar Singh an iron rod and the remaining accused had lathis in their hands. They asked accused Amar Singh to dig the foundation whereupon the said accused started digging founda tion by the side of the western wall of Chhotey Singh's cattle shed. Chhotey Singh, P. W. 1 also reached there and asked the accused persons to stop digging as Pradhan has already asked them not to cause any interference, but the accused persons did not listen and continued with the digging. An altercation then ensued between them. In the meantime Manni Singh son of Girdhari Singh younger brother of Chhotey Singh also arrived there and he also remonstrated but the accused persons were not prepared to suc cumb and abused him. They started as saulting him and Chhotey Singh with their respective weapons. When Girdhari Singh and Smt. Laxmi Devi, father and mother of Chhotey Singh came to their rescue they were also assaulted by the accused persons. After assaulting Chhotey Singh and his family members accused persons retreated to their houses. Chhotey Singh took Manni Singh, Girdhari Singh and Laxmi Devi to police station Sachendi and lodged an oral report Ex. Ka-1 at 8. 45 a. m. On the basis of this report a case was registered in the general diary. ITs copy is Ex-Ka-6. Since the condition of Manni Singh was serious he was sent to U. H. M. Hospital with con stable Ram Naresh Mishra where his in juries were examined by Dr. Surya Prakash Dubey at 10. 10 a. m. Following injuries were found on the person of Manni Singh: (1) Incised wound 23. 5 cm. x 2 cm. x bone deep (skull) extending from tip of nose right side to the left parietal region. Posterior end of the wound is 9 cm. above the left ear. Bleeding was present. (2) Black eye left side. (3) Incised wound 3. 5 cm. x 1. 5 cm. x muscle on front of left fore arm lower part. Injuries were kept under observa tion and X-ray of skull was advised. Injured was admitted in the Hospital. The injuries were fresh in duration. Injuries Nos. 1 and 3 were caused by a sharp object while in jury No. 2 by blunt object. His injury report is Ex. Ka-2.;