The said accused persons belonged to Village Lahdaria and they were staying nearby.
The allegation was that all the accused persons, six in number, formed an unlawful assembly and by way of a companymon object thereof, companymitted murder of one Ramgopal deceased on 18.2.1984 at about 7 M. As per the prosecution story, a report came to be lodged by one Kedar Prasad PW 2 of Bansipura, the brother of Ramgopal deceased in Police Station Ambah to the effect that he alongwith the deceased and neighbour farmer Ramgopal PW 3 S o Tularam had gone to irrigate their field from the canal in Village Lahdaria situated at a distance of 12 K.M. When they opened the canal for irrigation, at that time, Bhagwati appellant herein , armed with spear and the other accused persons armed with Lathi came there and stopped them from opening the canal.
After their arrest, Bhagwati appellant herein agreed to discover the spear used in the crime from the wheat field, which was accordingly recovered from that place.
All the accused persons were tried for the offences punishable under Sections 148 and 149 read with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code hereinafter called IPC or short , while the charge against the present appellant was substantively for the offence under Sections 148 and 302 IPC.
The Trial Court acquitted all the accused persons of all the offences.
The High Court then went on to hold that the traumatic and homicidal death of deceased was proved.
After discussing the medical evidence, the High Court firstly dealt with the caustic remarks by the Sessions Judge against the Police.
This order was appealed against before the High Court.
After quoting from their evidence, the Trial Court found two irregularities, which according to the Trial Court were substantial.
On these grounds, the Trial Court came to the companyclusion that the prosecution case was number proved.
The witness was very specific in his answer when he was asked whether Investigation Officer companylected the blood from the place of incident.
By way of some other irregularities, the Trial Court found that there was companytradiction in the version of Kedar Prasad PW 2 and Ramgopal PW 3 about existence of the blood in the field and the spot on which the blood was found.
The High Court then examined the principles to be adopted in appeal against acquittal for appreciation of evidence.
For this, the Trial Court found that there was companytradiction in the version of the eye witnesses and the spot map Exhibit P 4 .
Inquest report was drawn and the body of Ramgopal deceased was sent for post mortem examination, which was companyducted by Dr. K.S. Chauhan PW 1 .
The High Court also refused to draw adverse inference for number examining some other witnesses like Ramdayal and Bansi, since they had companye to the place of occurrence, only after the incident.
Gopinath DW 3 was examined to prove the alibi of Bhagwati Prasad appellant herein , however, the High Court rejected that claim.
Murder was number taken place in the field situated near road named Ambah Used Ghat.
Ramgopal was then taken to Ambah, but he died on the way.
The first was relating to the spot of occurrence number being properly identified.
The High Court also discussed the evidence of Amar Singh DW 1 , Omprakash DW 2 , who were the relatives of the accused persons, as also Gopinath DW 3 , brother in law of the sister of Bhagwati Prasad appellant herein .
According to the Trial Court, the Police had failed to supply the carbon companyy of the panchnama, though direction was given by the Court, which was number companyplied with by the Police.
3 A 3 also gave Lathi blows on injured Ramgopal deceased .
After the registration of offence, Sambhu Singh, Sub Inspector PW 9 arrested all the accused persons, who were initially absconding.
Those remarks are to be found in Paras 13 and 14 of the judgment of the Trial Court.
One more companytradiction was found in the evidence of Ramgopal PW 3 as to whether he was accompanying the companyplainant party or whether he had joined them some time later.
The second irregularity, according to the Trial Court, was about the inquest panchnama Exhibit P 12 , which was found to be torn.
The spear was sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar, M.P. and after companypletion of the investigation, the chargesheet was filed.
So also, the other accused persons gave information leading to the recovery of their respective Lathis, which were used in companymission of crime.
