- (1.) A 1, A 11, A6, AS, A3, A 12, A4, A2, A7 and A 10 in Sessions Trial No. 311/1983 are the appellants. Two other accused, Patwari Rawani and Maghu. Rawani, who were arrayed as A8 and A9, were tried alongwith them. In this appeal, the appellants will be referred in the same order as they were arrayed before the Sessions Judge and the two acquitted accused, namely, Patwari Rawani and Maghu Rawani, will be referred as A8 and A9 for the sake of convenience.
(2.) A 1 to A 12 were charged under section 302 read with Section 34 I.P.C., 201 I.P.C., 148 I.P.C. as well as under section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. The Trial Judge, while acquitting Patwari Rawani and Maghu Rawani of the charges, found A1 to A7 and A10 to A12 (who are appellants herein) guilty under section 302/ 149 I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to imprisonment for life. On being found guilty under section 148 I.P.C., each of them was sentenced to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment, while rigorous imprisonment of seven years was imposed on each of them for the conviction under section 201 I.P.C. The Trial Judge, though found the above appellants guilty under section 302/ 34 I.P.C., did not award any separate sentence we are unable to understand as to why learned Sessions Judge should find appellants guilty both under section 302/34 I.P.C. and under section 302/149 I.P.C. The present appeal by the accused appellants is against the above conviction and sentence. All the accused are residents of Rajashar Tola. The deceased Surendranath Tiwary and the witnesses were residents of Mouza. The accused, according to the prosecution, used to tease the women of the village and further, according to the prosecution, in the year 1982, the sister of the deceased was given in marriage and during the wedding a brass plate was found missing. The accused were blamed for the missing of the brass plate and according to the prosecution, A 1 to A9 were, therefore, aggrieved against the deceased and that the occurrence took place on account of the above motive.
(3.) ON 5.4.1983 at about 7.00 p.m., Surendranath Tiwary was at the Tea Shop. He was met by P.W. 5 Nawal Kishore Tiwary, P.W. 6 Braj Kishore Mishra and P.W. 8 Ramesh Chandra Dubey. The deceased, on seeing P.Ws. 5, 6 and 8, left the Tea Shop where he was sitting after purchasing milk in a Lota. All of them started proceeding to the village. While they were on the way to the village, the twelve accused appeared before them, armed with various weapons, and started inflicting injuries on the deceased Surendranath Tiwary. Then P.Ws. 5, 6 and 8 attempted to intervene to prevent the attack; but they were threatened. Therefore, P.Ws. 5, 6 and 8 ran away from the place. P.W. 6, after some time, leaving the village, went to Jasidih police station and gave fardbeyan, Ext. 5, to Ramadhar Singh, Sub -Inspector, P.W. 9. This was registered as a crime and investigation was taken up. During the course of investigation, inquest was conducted over the dead body of the deceased and the inquest report is Ext. 4. After the inquest, the body was sent for post mortem with a requisition requesting the Doctor to conduct autopsy.;