The State Of Madhya Pradesh vs Ramji Lal Sharma

State of M.P. ..Appellant(S)

Versus

Ramji Lal Sharma & Anr. ..Respondent(S)

JUDGMENT

M. R. Shah, J.

1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned

judgment and order dated 13.12.2018 passed by the High

Court of Madhya Pradesh, Bench at Gwalior in Criminal

Appeal No.339 of 2006, by which, the High Court has

allowed the said appeal and has acquitted respondent No.1

and 2 herein – original accused No.1 and 3, for the offences

Signature Not Verified punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Digitally signed by R Natarajan Date: 2022.03.09 IPC, by giving benefit of doubt, the State of Madhya Pradesh 16:30:33 IST Reason:

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has preferred the present appeal.

2. As per the prosecution case sometime prior to 8:30 in the

morning of 17.01.2002, one Devendra, son of Bhagirath,

brother of deceased Munshilal, went to the house of

accused Ramjilal for demanding money for grinding of

wheat in the flour mill and accused persons Mukesh (A­4)

and Brijesh (A­3) met him. When Devendra demanded

money, then, accused No.3 and accused No.4 assaulted him

with kicks and punches. Somehow, he rescued himself. The

said incident was brought to the notice of the complainant

Laxminarayan. The brother of Devendra, namely, Ramgopal

and father Bhagirath, went to the house of accused persons

for enquiring about the scuffle. All the accused were going

towards the house of the deceased Munshilal. While seeing

them, the cousin brother of deceased namely Laxminarayan

also reached the door of Munshilal. The accused­Mukesh

was carrying 12 bore double barreled firearm, accused­Kallu

Brijkishore was carrying 12 bore single barreled firearm and

accused Brijesh alias Sadhu alias Brijnandan and Ramjilal

were carrying axe. At that time, the deceased was returning

after urinating in Goda of Ramswaroop. All the accused

2 persons surrounded him. Accused­Ramjilal hit with the axe

on Munshilal, which was obstructed and held by the

deceased and thereafter, accused Mukesh fired from his

firearm. The accused­Kallu also fired from his firearm. The

deceased Munshilal fell down in the Goda of Ramswaroop.

The entire incident was seen by eye witnesses including the

original complainant – Laxminarayan (PW­1). When

Laxminarayan, Devendra and Surender put Munshilal on

the Cot (charpai) to take him to the Police Station but

Munshilal died while he was being taken to the Police

Station. The complainant Laxminarayan got recorded the

First Information Report of the incident in the morning at

9:20 against all the four accused for the offences punishable

under Sections 302, 307, 34 of IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act. The Investigating Officer initiated the

investigation and recorded the statements of the witnesses.

He prepared the punchnama. He collected the post mortem

report/medical evidence. After conclusion of the

investigation, the Investigating Officer filed a chargesheet

against all the accused for the offences punishable under

3 Sections 302, 307 and 34 of the IPC and Section 3(2)(5) of

the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act. As the case was exclusively triable by the

Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Court of

Sessions. The accused pleaded not guilty and therefore, all

of them came to be tried by the learned Trial Court for the

aforesaid offences.

3. To prove the case, the prosecution examined five eye

witnesses including PW1, PW3 and PW5. The prosecution

also examined Dr. R.K. Taneja as PW6. The Investigating

Officer was also examined by the prosecution. After closure

of the evidence on the side of the prosecution, further

statements of accused under Section 313 of Cr.PC were

recorded. Their case was of total denial. That thereafter, on

appreciation of evidence on record oral as well as the

documentary, the learned Trial Court held that all the

accused shared the common intention to kill the deceased.

On appreciation of evidence on record, the learned Trial

Court held all the accused guilty for the offences punishable

under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and

sentenced all the accused to undergo life imprisonment with

4 a fine of Rs.5,000/­ each.

3.1 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned

judgment and order of conviction the accused preferred

Criminal Appeal No.339/2006 before the High Court. By the

impugned judgment and order, the High Court has allowed

the appeal preferred by respondent No.1 and 2 herein –

original accused No.1 and 3, by giving them benefit of doubt

and by observing that there is a contradiction in the ocular

and the medical evidence and therefore their presence itself

is doubtful.

3.2 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned

judgment and order passed by the High Court acquitting

respondent No.1 and 2 herein – original accused No. 1 and

3, by giving them benefit of doubt, the State has preferred

the present appeal.

4. Having heard learned counsel appearing on behalf of the

respective parties at length and on going through the

impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court, it

appears that while acquitting the accused the High Court

has observed in paragraph 14 as under: ­ “14. After hearing the arguments and going through the record, two things are apparent; one, involvement of

5 appellant No.1 Ramjilal Sharma and Appellant No.3 Brajmohan @ Kallu is not made out as ocular evidence is not corroborated by medical evidence given by Dr. Taneja (P.W.6) and secondly, as far as appellant No.2 Brijkishore Sharma @ Kallu is concerned, in view of specific finding given by Dr. R.K.Taneja (P.W.6), that cause of death was homicidal and it occurred because of injury in femoral artery as well as gun shot injury in lungs, it can not be said that femoral artery is not a vital organ. Thus, it is apparent that Kallu shared common intention, whereas presence of appellant No.1 and 3 is doubtful. Therefore, appellants No.1 and 3 should have been extended benefit of doubt which has been wrongly denied by the trial court. When no independent witnesses are examined and medical evidence is not corroborated by the prosecution story, then conviction was reversed as held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Lilia Vs. State of Rajasthan as reported in (2014) 16 SCC 303. Therefore, this court finds that this is a fit cases to record acquittal in favour of appellants No.1 Ramjilal and No.3 Brijnandan @ Brijesh Sharma. As far as conviction of appellant No.2 under Section 302 with the aid of Section 34 of IPC is concerned, it is clearly made out.”

Except the above findings/reasoning no other findings

are recorded by the High Court.

4.1 From the impugned judgment and order passed by the High

Court, it appears that what has weighed with the High

Court is that there is discrepancy in the ocular evidence as

well as the medical evidence and/ or the ocular evidence is

not corroborated by the medical evidence and therefore, the

presence of accused No.1 and 3 is doubtful. According to

the High Court, eye witnesses PW1, PW3 and PW5 stated

that accused No.1 and 3 were having axe in their hands,

they attacked the deceased by their axe, however, as per the

6 medical evidence no such injury by axe is found. However, it

is required to be noted that PW1, PW3 and PW5 are all eye

witnesses to the incident and they are believed so far as the

other accused are concerned. It is also to be noted that right

from the very beginning of filing/lodging the FIR the names

of all the accused were disclosed. Accused No.1 and 3 were

also named in the FIR. All the eye witnesses are common in

saying that accused No.1 and 3 also came along with other

accused. Therefore, their presence has been established and

proved by the prosecution. Even on going through the

deposition of PW1, his case was that Ramjilal – accused

No.1 first hit Munshilal with an axe which was caught by

Munshilal with his hand. If that be so naturally there could

not be any injury on the hand of Munshilal. Even PW5, who

is also one of the witnesses, has also deposed and stated

even in cross­examination that Ramjilal hit axe and that

Munshilal caught head of axe, therefore, axe could not hit

Munshilal. Therefore, as such it cannot be said that there

are any material contradictions in the ocular and the

medical evidence of which benefit of doubt should be given

to the accused.

7 4.2 Even otherwise once it has been established and proved by

the prosecution that all the accused came at the place of

incident with a common intention to kill the deceased and

as such, they shared the common intention, in that case it

is immaterial whether any of the accused who shared the

common intention had used any weapon or not and/or any

of them caused any injury on the deceased or not.

4.3 As such the learned Trial Court in paragraph 35 gave

specific findings on the common intention shared by all the

accused to kill the deceased. However, the High Court has

not at all considered the aforesaid vital aspect of the case.

The High Court has also not discussed and/or re­

appreciated the entire evidence on record and has acquitted

accused No.1 and 3 by simply observing that there are

contradictions in the ocular and medical evidence, and

therefore the presence of accused No.1 and 3 is doubtful

and therefore, they are entitled to the benefit of doubt. As

observed hereinabove as such there are no material

contradictions between the ocular and medical evidence.

The presence of all the accused have been established and

proved and the prosecution has also been successful in

8 proving that all the accused including accused No.1 and 3

shared the common intention. Therefore, as such the

learned Trial Court rightly convicted all the accused

including accused No.1 and 3 for the offences punishable

under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC. The High

Court has erred in reversing the conviction and acquitting

accused No.1 and 3 – respondent No.1 and 2 herein, by

giving them the benefit of doubt.

5. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above the

present appeal succeeds. The impugned judgment and order

passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Criminal

Appeal No.339/2006 in so far as acquitting respondent No.1

and 2 herein – original accused No.1 and 3 for the offences

punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the

IPC is hereby quashed and set aside. The judgment and

order passed by the learned Trial Court convicting

respondent No.1 and 2 herein ­ original accused No.1 and 3

for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with

Section 34 of the IPC is hereby restored. The sentence

imposed by the learned Trial Court is also restored. Now

respondents herein – original accused to undergo the

9 remaining sentence as per the judgment and order of

conviction and sentence passed by the learned Trial Court.

Respondent No.1 and 2 to surrender before the concerned

Jail authorities or Court within a period of four weeks from

today. The present appeal is accordingly allowed.

…………………………………J. (M. R. SHAH)

…………………………………J. (B. V. NAGARATHNA)

New Delhi, March 09, 2022

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