IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CRIMINAL APPEAL (SJ) No.1092 of 2018 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-93 Year-2002 Thana- SATHI District- West Champaran ====================================================== 1. Nanhu Paswan, S/o Jiut Paswan, 2. Ramchandra Paswa, S/o Khedu Paswan. 3. Ramji Paswan, S/o Khedu Paswan. 4. Lalbabu Paswan @ Lal Babu Paswan, S/o Jiut Paswan, 5. Bhusi Paswan, S/o Jiut Paswan, All are resident of Village- Lachnauta, P.S.- Sathi, District- West Champaran. ... ... Appellant/s Versus The State Of Bihar ... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance : For the Appellants : Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Upadhyay, Advocate For the State : Mr. S. Ashfaque Ahmad, APP ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE PRABHAT KUMAR SINGH ORAL JUDGMENT Date : 22-07-2026 Heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned A.P.P. for the State. 2. This appeal has been filed challenging the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 14.03.2018 passed in Sessions Trial No. 591 of 2006 arising out of Sathi P.S. Case No. 93 of 2002 whereby Appellant No. 5, namely Bhusi Paswan, has been convicted under Section 324 of the Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and rest of the appellants have been convicted under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1092 of 2018 dt.22-07-2026 2/5 year. 3. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 05.10.2002 at about 10 PM, when the informant went out of the house to urinate, in the meantime, all the F.I.R. named accused persons, including these appellants, came there and started assaulting informant. It is alleged that on the orders of Appellant No. 4, namely Lalbabu Paswan, Appellant No. 5, namely Bhusi Paswan, assaulted on the head of informant with Gadasa causing cut injury. It is further alleged that all the accused persons assaulted informant with lathi and Appellant No. 4, namely Lalbabu Paswan, took Rs. 2,200/- from pocket of informant and Appellant No. 1, namely Nanhu Paswan, snatched watch of informant. Upon hulla, co-villagers arrived and all the accused persons fled away from the place of occurrence. 4. In this case, in order to bring home guilt of the accused, the prosecution has examined altogether five witnesses. P.W. 1, namely Ramayan Sah, is brother of informant of claims to be eye witness of the occurrence. P.W. 2, namely Kanhaiya Sah and P.W. 4, namely Kodai Ansari, are co-villagers of the informant and have supported the prosecution case. P.W. 3, namely Singhasan Sah, is informant of the present case and Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1092 of 2018 dt.22-07-2026 3/5 injured witness. P.W. 5, namely Dr. Vishwanath Prasad, is doctor who examined the informant and has opined that informant has one fracture injury on the right hand which is grivous in nature, an incised wound on the head caused by sharp cutting weapon and swelling on the right thigh and upper chest caused by hard and blunt substance. The prosecution has also adduced documentary evidences, which are marked as:- Exhibit 1 Signature of P.W. 3 over fard beyan Exhibit 1/A Signature of Chotelal Paswan over fard beyan Exhibit 1/B Signature of Toofan Ansari over fard beyan Exhibit 2 Injury report of the informant. 5. On the other hand, the defence has also examined on witness i.e. D.W. 1, namely Badri Choudhary, who has deposed that the informant is a habitual drinker and there is long standing land dispute between the parties. 6. After hearing the parties, the learned trial court convicted these appellants and sentenced them, as indicated in the opening paragraph of this order. 7. On going through the rival submissions, evidences and upon perusal of the records, this Court finds that in this case, the Investigating Officer has not been examined, which has caused great prejudice to the defence as the defence could not get opportunity to explain the material Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1092 of 2018 dt.22-07-2026 4/5 discrepancies and contradict the witnesses. Evidence also reveals admitted prior enmity and land dispute between the parties, thereby rendering possibility of false implication. Moreover, all the witnesses are highly interested witnesses. This Court further finds that the incident took place in the year 2002 and during the aforesaid period, there is no complaint against these appellants. 8. Keeping in view the age, the fact that the incident is of the year 2002 and there is no complaint against these appellants after institution of the present F.I.R., I feel that end of justice would be met if the sentence is reduced to the period already undergone. 9. Accordingly, the impugned judgment of conviction is upheld and the order of sentence dated 14.03.2018 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, F.T.C.-II, Bettiah, West Champaran in Sessions Trial No. 591 of 2006 arising out of Sathi P.S. Case No. 93 of 2002 is modified and the sentence awarded to appellants, above named, is reduced that to the period they have already undergone. 10. In that view of the matter, appellants, above named, are discharged from the liability of their bail bonds in connection with this case. Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1092 of 2018 dt.22-07-2026 5/5 11. Accordingly, this appeal stands disposed of. 12. Interlocutory application/s, if any, also stands disposed off. shashank/- (Prabhat Kumar Singh, J) AFR/NAFR NAFR CAV DATE NA Uploading Date 27.07.2026 Transmission Date 27.07.2026