- (1.) This appeal has been preferred against the Judgment dated 31.7.1993 passed by Sri Satendra Kumar Gupta, 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh in Sessions Trial No. 23/1990 whereby the appellant has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and he has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. The appellant was also convicted under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code and he was further sentenced to undergo R.I. for five years. Both the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.
(2.) The prosecution case, in brief as stated in the written report of the informant Shankar Rajak, is that his maternal cousin brother Kesho Rajak (the deceased) who was a student of Class X of Misraul High School, had gone to his School on 31.8.89 at 10.00 A.M. He did not return from his school. In the evening his parents made search from the relatives about him but his whereabout could not be known. They searched for the whole night but he was not found. On the next day i.e. 1.9.89 they came to know from the companions of Kesho Rajak who was also student of class X that after tiffin hours, five students of that school namely Dinesh Kumar Verma (the appellant), Arjun Kumar, Mahesh Kumar Verma, Charwa Oraon and Dilip Kumar Pathak were seen going towards the Forrest office taking Kesho Rajak with them. Dinesh Kumar Verma was riding the bicycle and Kesho Rajak was sitting on the carrier. Other four students were also on their bicycle. It is further said that out of them only Dilip Kumar Pathak returned after two hours while other students did not return. On such information, when a search was made behind the forest office then dead body of Kesho Rajak was found in a small ditch and his bicycle was found at a distance of five hundred yards from his dead body. Therefore, it was suspected that those five students named above, murdered Kesho Rajak and concealed his dead body in the jungle. It is further stated in the written report that seeing the dead body of Kesho Rajak, their parents was very much disturbed and as such the information was lodged by this informant.
(3.) As the case was exclusively triable by the court of sessions, it was committed to the court of sessions. The trial court framed charges against all the five accused persons under sections 302/201/34 of I.P.C. During the trial, the case with respect to accused Umesh Kumar Verma, Charwa Oraon and Dilip Kumar Pathak who were found to be Juvenile, below 16 years of age at the time of commission of the alleged occurrence, was separated.;