- (1.) The two appellants along with one Shanti Devi faced trial for allegedly committing homicidal death of one Maheshwar Mahto (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased'). The learned court of Ist Additional Judicial Commissioner, Khunti, Ranchi convicted the two appellants by judgment dated 06.09.2005 under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to undergo the rigorous imprisonment for life by order of sentence dated 12.09.2005 passed in Session Trial No. 560 of 2003.
(2.) Accusations, which led to trial of the accused persons, are as follows:- There was enmity between the three accused and the deceased and they all belonged to the same family. The father of the present two appellants namely Khudi Ram Mahto was the eldest brother, the deceased was the second brother and the youngest brother was Usha Ram Mahto. Few days earlier to the occurrence, the two appellants had forcibly ploughed the land, which was in the share of the mother of the deceased and on objection raised by the deceased, the appellant Sanjay Mahto had given threatening to the deceased and his brother of dire consequence. On 10.10.2002, the fateful day, at about 6.00-6:30 A.M., the informant Lalita Devi along with her deceased husband Maheshwar Mahto had gone on call of nature towards Damari More, Sonahatu and after obeying the call of nature, the informant came back to her house and was going to fetch water when saw some hot conversations between Shanti Devi and her husband and in the meantime, the appellant Fulendra Mahto @ Tika Mahto armed with Balua and Sanjay Mahto armed with spade came there and inflicted injuries to her husband. When her husband raised cry to save him, the informant started weeping and also raised alarm whereupon her Gotni Kaushalya Devi and her Dewar Usha Ram Mahto came there but by that time, the appellants had inflicted several injuries on the head of her husband and after receiving injuries, her husband tried to run away from there but fell down in the field. The appellants further assaulted her husband resulting to his death and fled away. The fardbeyan (Ext.-5) of the informant Lalita Devi (P.W.-10) was recorded by S.I. Krishna Kumar Mahato of Bundu Police Station at 7.00 a.m. immediately after the occurrence on the same day at village Tau near the house of the informant. The said S.I. Krishna Kumar Mahto (P.W.-11) on the direction of the Officer-incharge of the police station took up the investigation, prepared the inquest report (Ext.-6) of the dead body and sent the body for postmortem. On completion of the investigation, the I.O. submitted the charge sheet whereafter the cognizance was taken and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. The charge against three accused including the two appellants was framed under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code which the appellants denied and pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.
(3.) The prosecution in order to establish the charge against the appellants and another accused Shanti Devi examined altogether eleven witnesses. Out of them, P.W. 1- Lahru Mahto, P.W. 2- Deo Nath Mahto, P.W.3- Sagar Prasad Mahto, P.W.4- Vishnu Mahto, P.W.5- Bahadur Mahto are all hearsay witnesses. P.W.1 is a witness of seizure of blood smeared soil, P.W. 3 and P.W. 5 are the witnesses of inquest report, P.W. 6-Kaushalya Devi, the Bhabhi of the informant, P.W.7- Usha Ram Mahato, brother of the deceased, P.W. 9- Lokesh Kumar Mahto, son of the deceased and P.W.10- Lalita Mehta, the informant, are the eye-witnesses of the occurrence. P.W.11- Krishna Kumar Mahto is the Investigating Officer. P.W. 8 Dr. Ajit Kumar Chaudhary conducted autopsy on the dead body of Maheshwar Mahto on 10.10.2002 and found the following injuries:- (i) Incised wound 13 X 4 c.m.X cavity deep on left fronto temporal region of the head situated antero posteriorly cutting the underlying bone and brain matter. (ii) 11 X 3 c.m. X bone deep on the left temporal occipital region of head cutting underlying front and brain matter. (iii) 5 X 1 c.m. X soft tissue on the left pinna cutting the left pinna over the left lateral neck 7 c.m. long. (iv) 6 X 1 c.m. X bone deep over frontal region of head middle part situated austere posteriorly cutting the underlying bone partially. (v) Linear cut 5 c.m. long on the top of right shoulder. There was presence of blood and blood clot in the cramnial cavity. (vi) 4 X 2 c.m. X bone deep lacerated wound on the left thigh lateral side on the lower joint with fracture of left temur bone lower part. The postmortem report was marked as Ext.-3. The doctor found all the above injuries as ante-mortem. The incised wounds, in the opinion of the doctor, were caused by hard and blunt substance and injury nos. (i), (ii) and (iv) were found to be sufficient to cause death as they were grievous in nature. The defence had also examined one witness Ganesh Mahto. The statements of three accused persons were recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. wherein the appellants and another accused Shanti Devi completely denied the allegation and claimed to be innocent. The trial court on consideration of the evidence of P.Ws. 6, 7, 9 and 10 and the materials on record, recorded the finding of the guilt of the two appellants and convicted and sentenced them as stated above. However, the trial court acquitted Shanti Devi of the charge levelled against her.;