- (1.) THE appellants were arrayed as A -4, A -3, A -2, A -6 and A -5 along with Chihak Hembrom, who was arrayed as A -1, in Session.s Case No. 142/1983. In this appeal, the appellants will be referred in the same order as they were arrayed before the Sessions Judge and the acquitted accused, Chihak Hembrom. will be referred as A -1 for the sake of convenience.
(2.) THE trial Judge, while acquitting A -1, Chihak Hembrom, of all the charges, convicted the appellants alone. A -4 and A -3 were found guilty under Section 148, IPC and A -2, A -5 and A -6 were found guilty under Section 147, IPC A -4 was also found guilty under Section 324, IPC for causing injury to PW 1. The trial Judge found A -4, A -6 and A -3 guilty under Section 323, IPC for causing injury to PW 2. The trial Judge, while acquitting others under Section 302 read with Section 149, IPC, found A -4 Gora Tudu guilty under Section 302, IPC, for which he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The trial. Judge imposed sentence of two years under Section 148, IPC, only one year under Section 147, IPC, two years under Section 324, IPC and six months under Section 323, IPC on the accused, who were convicted as stated above. The present appeal challenges the said conviction and sentence. On 25.11.1979 at about 8.00 a.m., PW 1 Manohari Hembrom was standing at a field along with his parents. Paddy harvesting was going on. The accused persons came to the paddy field armed with various weapons and then started attacking the deceased, as a result of which the deceased, Sarkar Hembrom, suffered injuries and died. When intervened, PW 1 and PW 2 were also assaulted by the accused and they suffered injuries. On 26.11.1979, Ext. 3, fardbeyan. was given by PW 1 at Shikaripara police station to Rajnandan Sharma, who was in -charge of the police station. It was registered as a crime and investigation was taken up by the Investigation Officer (I.O. not examined). During the course of investigation, inquest was conducted and later the dead body of Sarkar Hembrom was sent to the hospital for postmortem.
(3.) ON receipt of the dead body, the doctor (he was not examined) conducted autopsy on the dead body of Sarkar Hembrom and found the following injuries: - (i) Incised wound 6" x 4" x chest cavity deep over left side of the upper part of the chest, oblique with fracture of lateral end of the shaft of the clavicle first rib, pleura and upper lobe of left lung. There was about 3 Oz. blood. (ii) One incised wound of size 4" x 3" x bone deep over right lower third of the leg with cutting of all muscles, vessels and both bone tibia and fibula. (iii) One incised wound over left feet of size 2" x 1/2" x bone deep involving fracture of 1st, 2nd and 3rd metatarsal bone. (iv) Swelling and bruise over whole left dorsal aspect of the hand. (v) Swelling and bruise over right forearm on dorsal aspect. The doctor issued Ext. 10, the post -mortem certificate, opining that death could be on account of shock and heamorrhage and that the injury No. 1 was sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature. ;