PATNA, India, Oct. 6 -- Patna High Court issued the following judgment on Sept. 8:

The present criminal appeal has been preferred under Section 413 of the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 against the judgment and order dated 11.03.2025 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge- V, Purnea in Sessions Trial No. 119/2022, arising out of Dagaruwa P.S. Case No. 196 of 2018, whereby Respondent Nos. 2 to 6 were convicted under Sections 147/149 and 323/149 of the Indian Penal Code. However, they were subsequently acquitted under Section 3 of the Probation of Offenders Act after due admonition.

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 25.09.2018, the informant, after closing his shop, was returning to his home. When he reached near house, was surrounded by all the accused persons, namely, Md. Wasim, Md. Muzaffar, Master Belal, Md. Ijaj, and Md. Shamim. The accused persons were armed with sword, farsa, iron rod and other deadly weapons. The accused, Master Belal allegedly took Rs. 25,350/- from the informant's pocket and inflicted an iron rod blow on the head of the informant, due to which he sustained injury and fell down. When the father, mother and wife of the informant came to save the informant, Master Belal ordered to kill them. Upon which, accused Md. Wasim allegedly gave a sword blow on the head of the informant's father, Fazal Rahman, due to which he also sustained injury and fell down. Accused Md. Muzaffar assaulted the informant's mother with fists while accused Shamim and Md. Ajaj allegedly tore the clothes of the informant's wife and attempted to outrage her modesty. Thereafter, all the accused persons fled away from the place of the alleged occurrence. The injured were taken to the police station by the informant's uncle with the help of the villagers, from where they were referred to Sadar Hospital Purnea for treatment. The father of the informant was referred to PMCH, Patna.

3. On the basis of the fardbeyan of the informant, Dagarua P.S. Case No. 196 of 2018 was instituted under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307,323, 379 and 504/34 of the I.P.C. and investigation was taken up by the police. The police after completion of investigation submitted charge-sheet against Respondent Nos. 2 to 6 and, accordingly, cognizance was taken. Thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. Charges were framed against the accused persons under Sections 147, 149, 307, 323, 341 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

4. During trial, the prosecution examined altogether 11 witnesses, namely PW1 Md. Fazallur Rahman, PW 2 Md. Manowar, PW3 Yasmin Khatoon, PW4 Md. Yunus, PW5 Md. Tanveer Alam, PW6 Md. Maskur Kalim, PW7 Md. Imtiyaza Alam, PW8 Dr. Abinash Kumar, PW9 Prem Prakash Sah, PW10 Vishnu Bhagwan Singh and PW11 Md. Wahid. The prosecution also produced certain documents, which were marked as 'Exhibits', i.e., the signature of the informant on the fardbeyan; Injury reports of informant and Fazlur Rahman; and the FIR.

5. On behalf of the defence, three witnesses were examined, namely DW1 Md. Jahangir, DW2 Md. Arif and DW3 Alamgir. On behalf of the defence, certain documents were also produced, which were marked as 'Exhibits', i.e., Certified copy of FIR of Dagarua P.S. Case No. 198 of 2018; certified copy of the order dated 06.11.2020 of Dagarua P.S.Case No. 198 of 2018 and certified copy of chargesheet of Dagarua P.S.Case No. 198 of 2018. After closure of prosecution evidence, the statements of the accused persons were recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. and upon conclusion of trial, the learned trial court convicted the accused persons, under Sections 147/149 and 323/149 of the Indian Penal Code. However, they were subsequently acquitted under Section 3 of the Probation of Offenders Act after due admonition.

6. The learned trial court held that, according to evidence available on record, the present case was a free-fight occurrence between the informant side and the accused side. The learned trial court in the relevant part of Paragraph 25 of the impugned judgment held the same and is reproduced as under:

The rest of the document can be viewed at https://patnahighcourt.gov.in/viewjudgment/NSM1MjIjMjAyNSMxI04=-orUDV6XnHNM=

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