STATE OF CHHATTISGARH vs GURUDEEP @ RIMPI

Challenge in this Acquittal Appeal is to the Judgment of Acquittal rendered by the trial Court acquitting the accused persons from the charges under

Sections 148, 341/149, 294/149, 323/149, 307/149, 506 Part 2/149 of the Indian Penal Code.

On account of death of Respondent Harjeet Singh @ Pedu, & Respondent Nitin Nath, the appeal has abated against them. Therefore, we have

considered this Acquittal Appeal only against the remaining accused namely; Gurudip @ Rimpi, Guru Lal @ Lali, Harcharan Singh @ Lovely &

Manprit Singh.

The incident occurred at 00.05 hours on 07.05.2004. At that time, complainant Surjeet Singh was driving his truck on the main road Dallirajhara and

was turning towards Raipur Road where the injured persons were coming on another truck from Bhanupratappur side and parked their truck on the

middle of the road, therefore, the accused persons got down from the truck and started beating the complainant. They went to the complainant's

house, brought his brother Ranjeet Singh from the house and given him beating by means of Iron Rod, Club, Hand, Fist and Kicks. The accused

persons also tried to run over the truck on Ranjeet but he somehow escaped.

During investigation both the injured were sent for medical examination by PW-1 Dr. Om Prakash Singh. This witness has found only simple

injuries over the person of the injured. On Radiological examination the injuries were not found to be accompanied with any fracture.

The prosecution examined 15 witnesses to bring home the charges. While injured persons namely PW-9 Surjeet Singh and PW-10 Ranjeet Singh

have supported the prosecution but have exaggerated the incident which did not find support from the statement of PW-3 Pyara Singh and PW-4

Kirtan, who reached the spot either at the time of incident or soon thereafter. Though, some incident has happened but the same appears to have

taken place on the issue of giving side to the truck or on account of wrong parking of truck, therefore, it is not a case where the accused persons

formed unlawful assembly to achieve the common object and intention of committing the crime. Though, it is mentioned in the FIR that there is prior

hostility between the injured persons and the accused persons but there is no evidence about the nature of that prior hostility. In absence of such

evidence, there is no proof that the accused persons had conspired or planned to form unlawful assembly to commit the offence under Section 307 or

323 or 506 Part 2 of the IPC.

If the accused persons had not formed any unlawful assembly, each of the accused would be responsible for his own act, but from the evidence on

record, it is not clear as to the particular accused who has caused any particular injury over the person of the injured persons. Similarly, there is no

evidence as to which accused was driving the truck when he tried to run over the truck through the body of Ranjeet. As a matter of fact, this part of

allegation has been found to be exaggerated and this is one of the reason why the trial Court has disbelieved the prosecution case.

Having seen the entire evidence, particularly the version of the independent witnesses PW-3 Pyara Singh and PW-4 Kirtan, we are of the opinion

that it was not safe to convict the accused persons, even for committing offence under Section 323 IPC because the evidence in respect of any

particular accused does not have clarity for recording a finding of guilt. The trial Court was fully justified in acquitting the accused persons from all the

charges.

Accordingly, the Acquittal Appeal deserves to be and is hereby dismissed.