It is in connection with the aforesaid Sessions trial and the conviction of the appellants under Section 302/34 IPC that the present appeals have been preferred one by Manja @ Amit Mishra and Jitendra Kumar Mishra @ Jittu and another by Gledwin @ Banti Isai and Ajay @ Ajayya.
The information of the alleged incident of beating and assaulting the deceased Pappu was given by one Virendra Kumar (PW-1) at about 09.00 PM to the brother of the deceased, i.e., Rajkumar Yadav and his mother Usha Rani Yadav.
It was made by the deceased to his brother Rajkumar Yadav and mother Usha Rani Yadav who have reached the place of occurrence on being informed that the deceased was being beaten and assaulted by the accused persons near Machchu Hotel.
He was returning from his friend’s house and when reached near Shukla Hotel, he saw the accused persons namely Banti, Manja, Jitendra and Ajay beating Pappu Yadav.
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It has come in evidence that Rahul Yadav (PW-13) is a relative of the deceased Pappu Yadav and as such he is not a free and independent witness.
Even the deceased has not mentioned in his alleged dying declaration or the statement given to his brother and mother that someone tried to save him or that the above witness Rahul Yadav (PW-13) had come to his rescue but was made to run away.
Abhishek Singh, PW-9) who performed the postmortem at Medical College, Jabalpur opined that the left lung of the deceased was punctured causing respiratory failure and the left lung was pale. The brother and the mother of the deceased had rushed to the spot only after receiving information of the incident from PW-1 who after seeing the accused persons assaulting the deceased had gone to their house to inform of the incident.
Accordingly, we are of the opinion that the conviction and sentence of the appellants are liable to be set aside and are hereby set aside by granting the benefit of doubt.
Case Title: JITENDRA KUMAR MISHRA @ JITTU Vs. THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH (2024 INSC 20)
Case Number: Crl.A. No.-001348-001348 / 2011
