DASHRATH @ JOLO & ANR. ETC. versus STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

Citation: [2018] 1 S.C.R. 368 · Decided: 23-01-2018 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: R.K. AGRAWAL · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2018] 1 S.C.R.
DASHRATH @ JOLO & ANR. ETC.
v.
STATE OF CHHATTISGARH
(Criminal Appeal Nos. 197-198 of  2018)
JANUARY 23, 2018
[R. K. AGRAWAL AND R. BANUMATHI, JJ.]
Penal Code, 1860 –  s.302 r/w s.149 – Murder – Unlawful
assembly – On facts, death of three persons and injuries to two by
the appellants – Appellants found guilty of forming unlawful
assembly armed with deadly weapons, with the common object to
commit murder of three and attempt to commit murder of PW 19 –
Conviction u/s. 302 read with s. 149 and sentenced to life
imprisonment as also convicted for other offences – High Court
upheld the order of the trial court – On appeal, held: Both the trial
court as well as the High Court accepted the evidence of PW-19,
injured eye-witness, whose evidence stands on a higher footing –
Weapons were also recovered from the appellants – Considering
the circumstances and the entire incident, it cannot be said that the
complainant party were the aggressors and that the appellants acted
in self defence – The submission that failure of the prosecution to
explain the injuries on the person of the appellants fatal to the
prosecution case, cannot be accepted – It cannot be held as a matter
of law or invariably a rule that whenever the accused sustained an
injury in the same occurrence, the prosecution is obliged to explain
the injury and on the failure of the prosecution to do so, the
prosecution case should be disbelieved – Further, the injuries
sustained by the appellants were simple in nature and answers
elicited from the doctors that those injuries found on the accused
could be self inflicted – Thus, upon appreciation of evidence and
on well considered reasonings, the courts below rightly convicted
the appellants – Evidence.
Takhaji Hiraji v. Thakore Kubersing Chamansing
(2001) 6 SCC 145 – referred to.
Case Law Reference
(2001) 6 SCC 145
 referred to
Para 9
[2018] 1 S.C.R. 368
368
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CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal
Nos. 197-198 of 2018.
From the Judgment and Order dated 13.05.2014 of the High Court
of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur in Criminal Appeal No. 598 and 599 of 2009.
Ms. Sangeeta Kumar, Adv. for the Appellants.
Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Atul Jha, Sandeep Jha, Dharmendra Kumar
Sinha, Advs. for the Respondent.
The Order of the Court was delivered by
R. BANUMATHI, J. 1. Leave granted.
2. These appeals arise out of the judgment dated 13.05.2014 passed
by the High Court of Chhattisgarh dismissing the criminal appeal Nos.598-
99/2009 thereby confirming the conviction and sentence passed by the
trial court.
3. Briefly stated case of the prosecution is that, on 03.08.2008 at
about 1.30 p.m., PW-19-Birichram went to the house of one Bhojram
for inviting him for the sixth day birth of his child (chhati).  The appellants
who are neighbours of Bhojram and were standing in front of their houses,
threatened PW-19 that they will kill him. When PW-19 asked the
appellants not to abuse, appellant Dashrath @ Jolo who was having
battleaxe alongwith one Phodol @ Duryodhan (since dead) who was
also having battleaxe and one Jagru (since dead) who was holding kudari
and some others who were holding sticks, assaulted PW-19. PW-14-
Chumbai and PW-17-Gayatri Bai who were coming towards the spot
tried to intervene in the incident. At the same time, deceased Chhedilal
who was also coming towards his field requested the appellants not to
beat  PW-19; but the appellants leaving PW-19, started assaulting
Chhedilal.  Phodol @ Duryodhan (since dead) crushed the head of
Chhedilal by blunt part of battleaxe.  At the same time, deceased Bhuru
@ Parmanand, deceased Bablu, PW-20-Dilip Kumar Yadav and PW-
21-Rajesh Yadav also came to the spot one by one and tried to intervene,
but the appellants assaulted all of them and caused the death of Chhedilal,
Bablu and Bhuru @ Parmanand on the spot.  PW-19-Birichram and
PW-20-Dilip Kumar Yadav sustained injuries.
4. All accused were arrested and based on their disclosure
statement, battleaxe was recovered from appellant Dashrath @ Jolo
DASHRATH @ JOLO & ANR. ETC. v. STATE OF
CHHATTISGARH
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[2018] 1 S.C.R.
and; Kudari recovered from Jagru @ Mohanlal; sticks recovered from
appellants Anand and Laxmi.  Blood stained clothes were also recovered
from the accused. Thereafter, all the seized articles were sent to Forensic
Science Laboratory (FSL) for chemical examination and presence of
blood upon clothes and weapons h

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