AKBAR SHEIKH Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sajaedar Rahman (Complainant-PW-1) was resident of a small village Bujung situated within the Police Station of Nalhati, in the district of Birbhum (West Bengal). He had a two-storeyed house made of mud with a tin shed. It had a verandah on the ground floor as also on the upper floor. It consisted of four rooms; two on the ground floor and two on the upper floor. There was another house in the same compound. It was thatched with straw. It was also a two storeyed one.

(2.) The deceased-Akramul Sheikh and Samsul Haque were his sons. Ashraful (PW-9) and Nasir were his two other sons. His wife is Latifa Bibi (PW-6) and Ahmuda Khatun (PW-7) is his daughter. Kazem (Accused No. 8) is his nephew. Ali Mohammed alias Kalu (PW-5) is his another brother.

(3.) On the fateful day, i.e., 16-5-1982 in the midnight, the complainant was sleeping inside his room. On the verandah thereof his wife, two sons Nasir and Saidul were sleeping. Ashraful and Kalu were sleeping in the first floor of another house. In the Baithakkhana(living room) Akramul and his wife Nadira were sleeping. Samsul Haque was sleeping in the courtyard. At about 1 a. m. in the night, the complainant was woken up by his son Ashraful and his nephew Kalu. He was informed that a large number of people had attacked his house. They were armed with deadly weapons. A hurricane was hanging in the verandah. He also came out with a torch. He found that about 100 persons were there. They started assaulting Samsul with lathi and ballam. Kazem (Accused No. 8) directed that he should be beheaded whereupon Saifuddin cut his neck with one stroke by a big knife ordinarily used by a butcher for slaughtering goats. Samsul was also assaulted by Buddik (Accused No. 14) with a knife. Samsul Arefin assaulted him with lathi. Kamruzzaman assaulted him with a ballam whereas Sadek (Accused No.4) assaulted him with tangi. He identified all of them. The accused chased the inmates of the house who were standing on the verandah. Out of fear, they entered into the room and bolted it from inside. Two-three bombs were hurled at the door. They exploded. An attempt was made to break open the door with an axe whereupon a gap was created. Ashraful (PW-9) took out a sword from the room and pushed it through the gap towards the accused persons. Then, Kazem asked Wahed to set fire on the chals of the south facing room. He also asked Maddin to do the same thing. Fire was set in the house with thatched straw. They took shelter in the vacant space outside the house. Akramul and his wife also came out from the house which was set on fire. Buddik assaulted Akramul on his back with an axe. On resistance offered by his wife and an appeal to the assailants not to kill him, Sadek assaulted her on her forearm of right hand with a shovel. Accused Buddik, Ruli, Sadek and Kabir forcibly Kidnapped Akramul to the house of the accused Arefin as directed by Kazem. All the accused thereafter dispresed. The complainant received an information that Akramul was killed near the pond. He went to the spot and found him dead with his neck chopped and a long cut injury on his chest upto abdomen. D. N. Ghosh (PW-13, officer-in-charge of the Police Station received an information about the incident on telephone. They came to the village in the early hours of the morning. A First Information Report was lodged at about 6 a.m. In the said First Information Report, about thirty persons were named. Charge-sheet was issued as against twenty nine persons. The trial took a long time. Whereas the complainant was examined in 1992, his son Ashraful (PW-9) was examined in 2001. The learned Sessions Judge convicted 20 persons. Nine persons died during the pendency of the trial. Appeals were preferred thereagainst. By reason of the impugned judgment, the High Court, while affirming the judgment of conviction, remanded the case back to the learned Trial Judge for determining the age of five appellants who advanced a plea that they were childrenon the date of commission of the offence.