Bhavesh Kumar And Ors vs State

Heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned Public Prosecutor for the State. Perused the material available on record.

Learned counsel for the appellants urge that the entire prosecution case is unbelievable. The incident took place after a trivial quarrel at the fuel pump where, the deceased was working. One of the assailants was allegedly attending the call of nature when he was obstructed whereafter the quarrel ensued. The incident is of 24.04.2016 wherein, Heer Singh injured received some injuries and was taken to the Mandar Hospital from where he was taken to Palanpur. Initially no injury report was prepared and if prepared, was not produced and proved on record by the prosecuting agency. No specific injury has been attributed to any of the eight convicted accused as having been inflicted to the deceased. Admittedly, the accused had no motive to murder the deceased Heer Singh. They submitted that all the appellants were on bail during trial and did not misuse the liberty of bail so granted to them and thus, they deserve the same indulgence during the pendency of the appeal also.

Learned Public Prosecutor on the other hand vehemently and fervently opposed the submissions advanced by appellants' counsel.

Replies to the applications for suspension of sentences have been filed in both the applications as per which, the appellants do not have any criminal antecedents. They were on bail during the course of trial and did not misuse the liberty so granted to them. As per the highest allegation of the eye-witnesses, the incident took place at the spur of moment after hot talks were exchanged between the accused and the deceased while one of the accused was trying to ease himself at the fuel pump. As many as 19 injuries were noticed on the body of the deceased but as per the postmortem report (EX.P/44), no grievous injury was found on any vital body part of the deceased. Only one fracture was found on his right leg. The prosecution case is totally silent regarding the condition of Heer Singh or his injuries when he was initially taken to the hospital. He expired on 02.05.2016 i.e. after nine days of the incident.

In view of the facts noticed above, this Court is of the opinion that the accused-appellants have available to them strong grounds so as to assail the impugned judgment. They were on bail during trial and did not misuse the liberty so granted to them. Hearing of appeal is likely to consume time.

Accordingly, the instant applications for suspension of sentences filed under Section 389 Cr.P.C. are allowed and it is ordered that the sentences passed by the learned Special SC/ST (Prevention of Atroticities) Cases, Sirohi vide judgment dated 05.11.2019 in Special Sessions Case No.18/2016 (26/2016) (CIS No.26/2016) against the appellants-applicants [1] Bhavesh Kumar S/o Ganpat Bhai, [2] Babubhai S/o Chelabhai, [3] Bhupat Singh @ Sanjay @ Major S/o Jawan Singh, [4] Balwant Singh @ Ballu S/o Gulab Singh, [5] Vijay Singh S/o Jawan Singh, [6] Pradeep Singh S/o Chandan Singh [7] Dileep Singh S/o Jagat Singh and [8] Dileep Singh S/o Jaswant Singh shall remain suspended till final disposal of the aforesaid appeal and they shall be released on bail, provided they execute personal bond in the sum of Rs.80,000/-each with two sureties of Rs.40,000/- each to the satisfaction of the learned trial Judge for their appearance in this court on 17.03.2020 and whenever ordered to do so till the disposal of the appeal on the conditions indicated below:-

That he/she/they will appear before the trial Court in the month of January of every year till the appeal is decided.

That if the applicant(s) changes the place of residence, he/she/they will give in writing his/her/their changed address to the trial Court as well as to the counsel in the High Court.

Similarly, if the sureties change their address(s), they will give in writing their changed address to the trial Court.

The learned trial Court shall keep the record of attendance of the accused-applicant(s) in a separate file. Such file be registered as Criminal Misc. Case related to original case in which the accused-applicant(s) was/were tried and convicted. A copy of this order shall also be placed in that file for ready reference. Criminal Misc. file shall not be taken into account for statistical purpose relating to pendency and disposal of cases in the trial court. In case the said accused applicant(s) does not appear before the trial court, the learned trial Judge shall report the matter to the High Court for cancellation of bail.