SC upholds 1983 murder case convictions
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld several convictions in a case of the murder of five people in Bihar in 1983, saying the brutality of the incident “shocks the judicial conscience.”
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh said the trial court as well as the Patna High Court rightly observed that the case leaves no room for “misplaced sympathy or leniency.” The top court delivered its verdict on the appeals filed by the convicts challenging an August 2017 judgment of the Patna High Court. The high court had upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded by the trial court to these convicts.
The apex court noted that the incident took place in March 1983 in a village in Muzaffarpur district, where a mob of at least 58 persons set the house of Chandra Shekhar Choudhary on fire, followed by the brutal killing of five persons and wounding of several others. It was the day of Holi when the mob armed with deadly weapons surrounded Choudhary’s house.
“The high court has meticulously summarised the role of each accused person and identified those who ignited the straw, those who set the house on fire, those who chased the fleeing victims and those who inflicted fatal blows upon the deceased persons,” the bench said.
It said the findings recorded by the high court clearly established that the accused constituted an unlawful assembly, were armed with deadly weapons and acted in furtherance of their common object of setting the house ablaze and causing the death of the members of Choudhary’s family.
The bench said once the common object of unlawful assembly stands established, every member thereof becomes vicariously liable for acts committed in prosecution of such common object.
It said the evidence on record clearly established active participation by the accused in different stages of the occurrence, including surrounding the house, setting it on fire, chasing the victims and assaulting them with lethal weapons.
“The brutality of the incident, in which five persons belonging to the same family lost their lives, and several others, including women and children, sustained serious injuries, shocks the judicial conscience,” the bench said, while dismissing the appeals.
It noted that during the pendency of appeals before the high court, several appellants expired and the appeals stood abated against them.
“The surviving accused persons, except those who have been granted the benefit of juvenility by this court or courts below, are directed to surrender forthwith before the trial court concerned and serve the remaining part of their sentence,” the top court said.
