THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO
CRIMINAL REVISION CASE No.741 OF 2011
ORDER:
This Criminal Revision Case directed against the judgment dt.22.12.2010 passed by the Judge, Family Court- cum-Additional Sessions Judge, Nalgonda, in Criminal Appeal No.60 of 2009, wherein and whereunder, the learned Sessions Judge partly allowed by modifying the judgment dt.01.05.2009 passed by the Principal Junior Civil Judge, Bhongir, in C.C. No.310 of 2006 against the accused, and the conviction of the appellants/A-1 to A-3 for the offence under Section 324 r/w 34 IPC is confirmed. The sentence of Rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months imposed by the trial Court is set aside, but A-1 to A-3 are sentenced to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/- each; in default of payment of fine, they are directed to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three months; the total fine amount is Rs.6,000/-.
2. The revision petitioners herein are the accused No.1 to 3 in C.C. No.310 of 2006, whereas the respondent is the State. For convenience, the parties hereinafter will be referred to as arrayed in the C.C. before the trial Court.
3. Brief facts of the prosecution case are as follows:
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That one Bandra Balaiah, who is the injured and the de facto complainant, has Ac.0-19½ gts., of land in Sy.No.1368 situated on the outskirts of Maryala village. The accused also has adjacent Ac.0-19½ gts., of land in the same survey number as the said land of the complainant. The accused and the complainant had been quarrelling about Ac.0-19 ½ gts., of the complainant's land for two months. On 26.01.2006 at 9.00 a.m. while the complainant, with the help of S. Balaiah, Muthireddy Kashaiah and Bandra Ramana, who are the labourers, were erecting pillars around the said land, while they stood at a little distance, in the meantime Accused No.1 to 3 came there with the crowbar and stick and tried to pull out the pillars. In that regard, a quarrel took place among them. Accused No.1 beat the complainant with a crowbar on left leg, right hand and right collarbone and accused No.2 beat him with a stick over left his temple, meanwhile Accused No.3 supported the acts of Accused No.1 and 2 kicking with legs and beating with hands.
4. In support of the prosecution case, PWs.1 to 8 were examined and Exs.P-1 to P-11 and MOs 1 and 2 were marked. No evidence was adduced on behalf of the accused.
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5. On appreciating the material on record, the Trial Court found the accused guilty of the charged offence and convicted and sentenced the accused as stated supra.
6. Aggrieved thereof, the accused No.1 to 3 preferred the above criminal appeal before the learned Sessions Judge, and the learned Sessions Judge, after appreciating the evidence on record, modified the sentence imposed by the trial Court as stated supra. Aggrieved by the same, the accused No.1 to 3 are challenging the said judgment of the Appellate Court before this Court.
7. Heard the learned Counsel appearing for the accused and the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing for the complainant/State. Perused the record.
8. It has been contended by the learned Counsel for the accused that though there is a plea of the accused that there are land disputes between the parties as their lands are situated side by side, and even though there is no evidence, the accused have been convicted falsely, and they never committed any offence, the learned judge wrongly penalized the accused for the offence under Section 324 r/w 34 IPC.
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9. Per contra, the learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing on behalf of the respondent/State had contended that the impugned judgments suffer no infirmity as they are well reasoned.
10. Now, the point for determination is:
Whether the accused is entitled for setting aside the concurrent judgments of the Courts below for the offence punishable under Section 324 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code?
11. POINT:
It is the contention of the complainant that has Ac.0-19½ gts., of land in Sy.No.1368 situated on the outskirts of Maryala village. The accused also have adjacent Ac.0-19½ gts., of land in the same survey number as the said land of the complainant. The accused and the complainant had been quarrelling about Ac.0-19 ½ gts., of land of the complainant for two months. In that regard, a quarrel occurred and the accused persons beat him. To prove his bona fides, he himself was examined as PW.1 and deposed that on 26.01.2006 at about 8.30 a.m. when he, along with others, were laying boundary stones around his land, all the accused came there, quarrelled about erecting the boundary stones by them, disputing his ownership and accused No.1 beat him with a 5 RRN,J Crl. RC No.741 of 2011 crowbar and accused No.2 beat him with stick and accused No.3 beat him with hands and kicked him.
12. PW.2, who is an alleged eyewitness to the incident, turned hostile and deposed that the police never examined her she and she never witnessed the incident as alleged by PW.1. As such, her evidence is not helpful to the prosecution case.
13. PW.3, who is another eyewitness to the incident, supported the version of PW.1 by deposing that when PW.1 had questioned the authority of accused No.1, who was removing the boundary stones erected by him, accused Nos. 1 to 3 started beating PW.1, due to which, PW.1 sustained fracture injury on his right hand on his leg. He further deposed that accused No.2 also beat up PW.1 with a stick on his forehead, accused No.3 kicked and hit him with his hands. The presence of PW.3 at the site of the incident is undisputed, as he happened to be the person who was engaged in the erection of the said pillars.
14. PW.4, also an eyewitness to the incident, was engaged by PW.1 to erect the stone pillars around his land along with PW.3. He also deposed in support of PW.1's version of events.
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15. PW.5 Ch. Satyanarayana and PW.6 N. Venkat Reddy are the panch witnesses for confession and seizure panchanama, who turned hostile and did not support the case of the prosecution. Their depositions are crucial in the facts and circumstances of the case, especially since they categorically deposed that the police obtained their signatures on blank papers, despite their protest. Even though they have not explained as to why they did not take any steps against the police for allegedly obtaining their signatures against their free will, it is safe to assume that owing to circumstantial pressures, PWs 5 and 6 did not take any steps against the police.
16. PW.7 is the Investigating Officer, who deposed that upon receipt of a complaint from PW.1, he registered a case in Cr.No.14/2006 for the offence under Section 324 r/w 34 IPC and issued FIR/Ex.P7. Subsequently, he recorded the statements of PWs 1 to 4, LWs 5 and 9 and referred the injured to the Government Hospital. He later altered the section of law from 324 r/w 34 IPC to 326 r/w 34 IPC, upon receipt of a medical certificate, wherein it stated that PW.1 sustained grievous injuries. He further deposed that Ex.P8 and P9 are the confession and seizure of panchanama of A-1 and A-2, and 7 RRN,J Crl. RC No.741 of 2011 MO.1 is a crowbar, and MO.2 is the stick, which were recovered from the possession of A-1 and A-2 respectively. It is pertinent to note that in view of the depositions of PWs 5 and 6, the recovery of MOs 1 and 2 itself is doubtful. However, owing to the above evidence of PWs 1 to 4 and PW.8, it cannot be doubted that PW.1 has sustained injuries.
17. PW.8/Dr. D. Upendra Reddy, the Medical Officer, who examined PW.1, deposed that PW.1 had abrasions and lacerations all over his body and also deposed that according to the report of Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. Prashanth, PW.1 also suffered one grievous injury.
18. Though the accused set up a defence, during the course of cross-examination of PW.1 that, PW.1 used to work as a lorry driver, previously on National High Way and that he sustained injuries in the lorry accident on 25.01.2006 and foisted a false case against the accused, connecting them, to the said injuries, due to previous disputes between them. Though PW.1 admitted that previously, he used to work as a lorry driver, and during his cross-examination, he stated that about ten years back, an accident case was registered by Thurkapally police. He, however, rejected the suggestion that 8 RRN,J Crl. RC No.741 of 2011 the present injuries were connected to the accident. If PW.1 sustained injuries in the accident, as contended by the accused during the course of cross-examination, a case would have been registered against PW.1 in that regard. In view of the above deposition of PW.1, the injuries sustained by him on 26.01.2006 cannot be connected to the said case.
19. Therefore, the concurrent findings arrived at by both the courts below are on appreciation of the entire evidence in proper perspective. However, owing to lacunae in the testimonies of PWs 5 and 6, it is not conclusively established as to whether MOs 1 and 2 were indeed recovered from the possession of accused Nos.1 and 2 as claimed by PW.7/Investigating Officer. There is no explanation on behalf of PW.7 with regard to the allegations of PWs 5 and 6 that their signatures were obtained against their will.
20. In view of the foregoing discussion, this Court is of the view that the charged offence under Section 324 r/w 34 IPC against the accused persons is not made out; as such, this Court is of the view that the accused are found guilty of the offence punishable under Section 338 IPC. Therefore, the order of the Appellate Court is liable to be modified, and the 9 RRN,J Crl. RC No.741 of 2011 section of law is altered from Section 324 r/w 34 IPC to Section 338 IPC.
21. Accordingly, the section of law is modified from Section 324 r/w 34 IPC to Section 338 IPC and the accused are sentenced to pay a fine of Rs.500/- each for the offence punishable under Section 338 IPC. As seen from the record, the accused No.1 to 3 have already paid the fine amount of Rs.2,000/- each on 22.12.2010. Hence, the balance amount to shall be returned the accused No.1 to 3 by deducting the fine amount imposed by this Court.
22. With the above modification, the criminal revision case is disposed of.
Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending shall stand closed.
_____________________________________ NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO, J Date: 20.10.2023 BDR