SHYAMAL GHOSH Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eight accused, namely, Panchanan Tarafdar @ Chotka, Uttam Das, Dipak Das @ Mou, Manoranjan Debnath @ Behari, Bishu Saha @ Chor Bishu, Satyajit Das @ Sadhu, Ganesh Das and Shyamal Ghosh, were charged with offences under Sections 302, 201, 379, 411 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, the 'IPC'). All these accused were found to be guilty of the offences with which they were charged by the Trial Court vide its judgment dated 13 th September, 2005. After hearing them on the quantum of sentence, vide order dated 14 th September, 2005, finding the offence to be that in the category of rarest of the rare cases, the Trial Court awarded sentence of death to all the accused persons for the offence under Section 302 IPC and directed that they be hanged by neck till they are dead, subject to confirmation by the Calcutta High Court. For the offence under Section 201 IPC, they were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- each, in default to further undergo simple imprisonment for one year and for the offence under Section 379 IPC to undergo imprisonment of three years and fine of Rs.1,000/- each in default to undergo six months simple imprisonment.

(2.) Aggrieved by the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Trial Court, all the accused preferred five different appeals before the High Court and prayed for setting aside the judgment of the Trial Court and their consequential acquittal. The High Court, vide its judgment dated 5 th February, 2007, while answering the death reference in the negative, acquitted all the accused persons of the offence under Section 379 read with Section 34 IPC. However, while sustaining their conviction under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, the Court awarded them rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- each in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years each. The High Court maintained the sentence imposed upon the accused by the Trial Court under Section 201 read with Section 34 IPC.

(3.) The legality and correctness of the judgment of the High Court dated 5 th February, 2007 has been challenged before this Court by accused Shyamal Ghosh in Criminal Appeal No.507 of 2007, Manoranjan Debnath @ Behari in Criminal Appeal No.1369 of 2007 and Panchanan Tarafdar @ Chotka and Uttam Das in Criminal Appeal Nos.539-540 of 2011.