IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1451 OF 2009
Uma Shankar Gautam .. Appellant
versus
State of Madhya Pradesh .. Respondent
The appellant herein is accused no.1 and he along with five other accused were tried in Sessions case no.193/1995 on the file of Sessions Judge, District Shahdol and the trial court convicted them for the commission of offences under Section 147 and Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for the first offence and each of them to undergo imprisonment for life for second offence. Aggrieved by the same all the accused preferred Criminal Appeal no.1537 of 1998 to the High Court of judicature at Jabalpur. During the pendency of appeal appellant no.2/accused no.2 Ramashankar died and the appeal preferred by him stood abated. The High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence of accused no.1 Umashankar, accused no.3 Shivashankar and accused no.4 Gaurishankar and at the same time acquitted accused no.5 Vasudev and accused no.6 Gyandev by allowing the Criminal Appeal in part. Challenging his conviction and sentence, accused no.1 Umashankar has preferred the present appeal. Briefly the case of the prosecution is narrated as follows: PW7 Savitri Bai is the mother of Kalua @ Ramnath and PW9 Usha Bai is his wife. On 19.7.1995 at about 8-8.30 a.m. the appellant herein/accused no.1 along with five other accused had gone to the house of Nan @ Lakhan situated at village Dindori Tola Bamhani and were hurling abuses in the courtyard. Nan was not in the house at that time and upon hearing the noise Kalua @ Ramnath went to Nan’s house. Accused no.3 Shivashankar armed with barchhi, accused no.4 Gaurishankar armed with farsa and accused nos.1,2,5 and 6 armed with lathis attacked Kalua with the said weapons and inflicted injuries on him. PW7 Savitri Bai tried to save his son Kalua and she was also beaten up. PW9 Usha Bai and PW2Shiv Kumari, mother of Nan, also witnessed the occurrence. After sometime accused no.1Umashankar and accused no.4Gaurishankar again came to the occurrence place on motorcycle and accused no.1 Umashankar kicked Kalua and they went away. PW9 Usha Bai went to PW12 Sarpanch Bhaiya Lal and narrated the occurrence. He along with PW4 chowkidar Bisahu Yadav came to the occurrence place and Exh.P-6 intimation report was sent through PW4 Bisahu Yadavto Police Station Anuppur. On receipt of information PW14sub-Inspector Raghvendra Baghel went to the occurrenceplace and received Exh.D1 complaint given by PW9 Usha Baiand took up the investigation. He conducted inquest on the body of Kalua and sent it for post mortem examination. He prepared Exh.P-7 map and seized blood stained earth and plain earth from the occurrence place and examined PW2Shiv Kumari, PW7 Savitri Bai, PW9 Usha Bai, PW12 Bhaiya Laland some other witnesses and recorded their statements….read more