Amerender Singh @ Amrender Prasad Singh and Rabinder Singh @ Ramender Singh vs The State of Bihar

Anjana Prakash, J.—The Appellant No. 1 has been convicted u/s 326 IPC and sentenced to RI for four years whereas the Appellant No. 2 has been convicted u/s 323 IPC and sentenced to RI for six months by the Additional Court-I, F.T.C., Begusarai in S. Tr. No. 353 of 1990 by judgment and order dated 30.04.2002/01.05.2002. The case of the prosecution is that on the morning of 24.04.1989 when he heard some shouts from his house he went there and saw the family members of Shatrughan Singh quarrelling with female members of his family on which he intervened. In the meantime accused, Shatrughan Singh and his two sons armed with bhala and lathi came and while Shatrughan Singh caught him, the Appellants gave bhala blows on his head on account of which he was injured. The accused persons also assaulted the informant with brick-bats and stone chips causing further injury to him. At his shouts a number of witnesses came there and snatched bhala. As per the prosecution, the motive of the occurrence is said to be land dispute.

The defence of the accused persons was that they have falsely been implicated on account of land dispute. In fact, there was a counter-version of this occurrence and the present case was instituted as a counter-blast. It appears that during trial accused, Shatrughan Singh died.

During trial the prosecution examined six witnesses out of whom P.W. 1, Baijnath Sharma, P.W. 2, Tapeshwar Sharma, P.W. 3, Ram Udai Singh and P.W. 4, Informant, Ram Shareshta Singh have deposed as eyewitness whereas P.W. 5 is the Dr. Anup Lal Chaudhary who performed the X-ray of the head injuries on the informant and P.W. 6 is the Doctor who examined the injuries of the Informant. The Investigating Officer has not been examined on behalf of the prosecution.

From the evidence of P.W. 4, Ram Shareshtha Singh it appears that when he reached home on shouts he saw the family members of the Appellants quarrelling with his family members after which the Appellants came there and while Shatrughan Singh caught him and give orders to kill him the Appellant, Amerender Singh gave bhala blow on the head of the informant. From the evidence of the Doctor, I find that six injuries were found on the person of the informant but only one injury was found grievous.

The defence brought on record the certified copy of the judgment of G.R. Case No. 835 of 1989 (Tr. No. 26 of 1994) to prove that the informant, Ram Shareshtha Singh had been convicted by the Judicial Magistrate in respect of the occurrence which occurred on the same day. All the witnesses who have been examined denied the counter-version from which it is clear that they have attempted to conceal the true facts of the occurrence.

In such view of the matter, it would be unsafe to rely upon on the sole testimony of interested witnesses in absence of examination and support of any independent witness including the Investigating Officer. Hence, giving benefit of doubt to the Appellants, the appeal is allowed and the order of conviction and sentence passed against the Appellants on 30.04.2002/01.05.2002 by the Additional Court-I, F.T.C., Begusarai in S. Tr. No. 353 of 1990 is set aside. The Appellants are discharged of the liability of their bail bonds.