The Uttarakhand High Court has set aside the acquittal of three accused by a trial court and sentenced them for a period of one year and six months. The Court observed, “Merely because an accused is deaf and dumb does not make him innocent, or place any doubt on the recovery made from him.”
This is an appeal filed by the State which arises out of judgment and order dated 04.03.2013 passed by Sessions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar in Sessions Trial No. 306 of 2011, whereby the three accused, namely, Smt. Phoolwa, Muni Maharaj and Shiv Raj who were charged and faced trial for an offence under Section 304 (read with Section 34 of IPC), have been acquitted by the trial court.
The complainant has lodged an FIR against the accused namely, Ms. Phoolwa, and her two sons Muni Maharaj and Shiv Raj that had beaten up her husband on some dispute regarding cutting of few branches of a tree. When an alarm was raised by her husband, other neighbours, namely, Dhaneshwar, Kailash and others came to his rescue and the assailants ran away. The complainant with the help of her neighbours took her husband, who was seriously injured, to Kichha Government Hospital, from where he was referred to the Government Hospital at Rudrapur (District Headquarters). He was taken to the hospital in a No. 108 Ambulance, but in the hospital, he was declared dead by doctors.
The police completed its investigation and thereafter filed a charge-sheet against them under Section 304 of IPC. According to the post-mortem report, it was found that the main cause of death was coma due to the head injury as after opening of the skull a huge clot of blood was found and the frontal bone was also found broken.