NEMAL MANDAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) In these appeals the appellants were initially convicted by the trial court along with certain other accused for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 besides Section 148 of the Indian Penal Code. Altogether fourteen accused persons were charge-sheeted by the police and the trial court convicted all those fourteen as per its judgment for the aforesaid offences. While awarding sentence the trial court chose the extreme penalty of death as for first accused Anand Mandal, third accused Sanyasi, fifth accused Nemai and seventh accused Ram Krishna. The Sessions Judge submitted the proceeding for confirmation before the High Court while all the convicted persons preferred appeals in challenge of the conviction and sentence imposed on them.

(3.) The High Court confirmed the conviction under Section 302 read with section 34 and the offence under Section 148 is against four persons who are a-l Anand Mandal, A-3 Sanyasi, A-5 Nemai and A-7 Ram Krishna. However, the Division Bench of the High Court reduced the sentence from the extreme penalty to the other alternative as for A-l Anand Mandal and A- 3 Sanyasi, while confirming the extreme penalty as for A-5 Nemai and A-7 ram Krishna. The High Court acquitted A-8 Adhir Mandal, A-11 Babu kabiraj and A-13 Gaurang Pramanik of all offences, while the remaining accused were convicted only under Section 143 IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three years and a fine of Rs 2000. All the aforesaid convicted persons have filed these appeals and therefore we heard all the appeals together. The two accused who were sentenced to death have filed these appeals from jail.