Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Dhani Ram vs State Of Rajasthan Through P P on 13 September, 2017
Author: Mohammad Rafiq
Bench: Mohammad Rafiq
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCH AT
JAIPUR
D. B. Criminal Misc. Application for Suspension of Sentence No.
946/2017
In
D. B. Criminal Appeal No. 1175 / 2017
Dhani Ram son of Keshav Singh, by caste Thakur, resident of
Abdulpur, Police Station Kanchanpur, District Dholpur (Raj.)
(At present in District Jail, Dholpur)
----Accused-Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan through P.P.
----Respondent
Connected With
D.B. Criminal Misc. Application for Suspension of Sentence
No. 947/2017
In
D. B. Criminal Appeal No. 1174 / 2017
1. Rameshwar
2. Pappu @ Ramsewak
Both sons of Keshav Singh, by caste Thakur, resident of Abdulpur,
Police Station Kanchanpur, District Dholpur (Raj.)
(At Present in District Jail, Dholpur)
----Accused-Appellants
Versus
State of Rajasthan through P.P.
Respondent
_____________________________________________________
For Appellant(s) : Mr. Anil Jain and Mr. Sriram Yadav.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. R.S. Raghav, Public Prosecutor.
For Complainant: Mr. Govind Prasad Rawat.
_____________________________________________________ HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MOHAMMAD RAFIQ HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KAILASH CHANDRA SHARMA (2 of 5) [SOSA 946/2017 & 947/2017 ] Order 13/09/2017 These applications have been filed by the accused- applicants seeking suspension of sentence awarded to them by the trial court.
Learned counsel for the accused-applicants have argued that present applications have been filed on behalf of the accused-applicants Dhani Ram; Rameshwar and Pappu @ Ramsewak, who have wrongly been convicted for offence under Section 302/34 IPC. It is contended that FIR has been registered much after the incident which fact is admitted by the informant Krishan Singh (P.W.1). Main allegation of opening fire at the deceased in the written report as also in the statement of the informant and other witnesses is against accused Bhagwati. It is contended that alleged criminal antecedents of the accused- applicants are the cases registered by the complainant party only as there has been long standing political rivalry between the two groups. It is argued that Bhagwati himself was Sarpanch and once his mother and at another time his wife, were Sarpanch, therefore, all these false cases have been registered against them. As per FSL Report (Exhibit P-34), there is no corroboration of country made katta of 12 bore being used in crime. Besides, no fire arm has been recovered at the instance of Pappu @ Ramsewak. It is submitted that as of now, only one case is pending against Pappu @ Ramsewak and only two cases are (3 of 5) [SOSA 946/2017 & 947/2017 ] pending against Dhani Ram and Rameshwar and remaining cases against them have already been decided. All the three accused- applicants were on bail during bail.
Learned Public Prosecutor as also learned counsel for the complainant argued that accused-applicants are history sheeters of the area inasmuch as all the eye-witnesses namely Krishan Singh (P.W.1); Nawal Singh (P.W.3); Vivek Kumar (P.W.6); Shri Kamal Singh (P.W.7); Shri Komal Singh (P.W.8) have attributed specific role not only to Bhagwati but also to Rameshwar that he opened fire which the complainant Krishan Singh (P.W.1) ducked and thereby saved himself and that Dhani Ram and Pappu @ Ramsewak also opened fire. It is submitted that three empty cartridges were recovered from the place of incident vide Exhibit P-8. One country made katta of 315 bore each was recovered at the instance of Bhagwati vide Exhibit P-20 and Dhani Ram vide Exhibit P-19. Besides one country made katta of 12 bore was recovered at the instance of Rameshwar vide Exhibit P-21. It is submitted that as per Forensic Science Report (Exhibit P-34), two 8 mm K.F. cartridge cases (C/1and C/2) from Packet 'D' have been fired from 8 mm/.315" country made SBBL gun from packet E which was recovered from accused Bhagwati vide Exhibit P-20. One 8 mm K.F. cartridge case (C/3) from packet 'D' has been fired from 8 mm/.315" country made pistol (W/3) from packet 'G' which was recovered from accused Dhaniram. Learned Public Prosecutor contended that accused- applicants have criminal antecedents. In this connection, learned (4 of 5) [SOSA 946/2017 & 947/2017 ] Public Prosecutor produced statement duly certified by SHO, Police Station Kanchanpur, District Dholpur, according to which, 11 criminal cases of different nature have been registered against accused Bhagwati; 6 cases have been registered against accused Dhani Ram and 13 cases have been registered against Rameshwar and 8 cases have been registered against accused Pappu @ Ramsewak. Learned counsel for the complainant submitted that number of cases registered against the accused-applicants is much more than what has been reported by SHO, Police Station Kanchanpur, District Dholpur. Even if the accused-applicants have been acquitted in most of the cases, this happened because no witness could muster enough courage to depose against them or the matter was settled by way of compromise. Learned counsel for the complainant submitted that in the present case one Satya Prakash, member of the complainant party was subjected to beating to create undue pressure for compromising the present matter and not giving evidence in the present case.
On hearing learned counsel for the accused-applicants, learned Public Prosecutor, learned counsel for the complainant, perusing the evidence on record, in totality of the facts and circumstances of the present case, considering the antecedents of the accused-applicants that six cases are registered against Dhani Ram and use of the countrymade gun recovered at his instance which finds corroboration from FSL Report (Exhibit P-34) and 13 cases are registered against Rameshwar and recovery of country made gun at his instance, which also finds corroboration from FSL (5 of 5) [SOSA 946/2017 & 947/2017 ] Report (Exhibit P-34) and consistency of allegations made against him by the prosecution witnesses, we are not inclined to suspend sentence of accused-applicants namely Dhani Ram and Rameshwar. However, we are persuaded to suspend the sentence of only accused-applicant Pappu @ Ramsewak.
It is ordered that the sentence of accused-applicant namely Pappu @ Ramsewak son of Keshav Singh shall remain suspended till disposal of his appeal and he shall be released on bail, provided he furnishes a personal bond in the sum of Rs.50,000/- with two sureties in the sum of Rs.25,000/- each to the satisfaction of the trial court to the effect that he shall appear before this court on 13.10.2017 and as and when called upon to do so.
Application for Suspension of Sentence No. 946/2017 filed by accused-applicant Dhani Ram is dismissed. Application for Suspension of Sentence No. 947/2017 is dismissed qua accused- applicant no. 1, Rameshwar, however, the same is allowed qua accused-applicant no. 2, Pappu @ Ramsewak.
Office is directed to place a copy of this order on record of connected application.
(KAILASH CHANDRA SHARMA)J. (MOHAMMAD RAFIQ)J. Manoj/58-59