KESHAV SAHU Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CHALLENGE is made to the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 13-12-2001 passed in S.T. No. 5/2001 by the IIIrd Addl. Sessions Judge (F.T.C.) Raigarh, whereby, the said Court, after holding the accused/ appellant guilty of offence punishable under Sections 302, 364 and 201 of IPC, sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment and R.I. for 3 years - 3 years with a further stipulation to run the sentences concurrently.

(2.) BRIEF facts are that the deceased namely Sameer Agrawal, aged about 6 years, was studying in Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Kharsiya. He was son of Shiv Kumar Agrawal (P.W. 7) and nephew of Yogesh Kumar Agrawal (P.W. 1). The accused was working as Jeep driver in the family of deceased and he used to take the children of their family to the school by Jeep. But on account of some dispute regarding theft of diesel, he was removed from the service 3 months prior to the date of incident. The case of the prosecution is that on 8-11-2000 the deceased had gone to school. When the driver of the family went to bring the deceased from the school he did not meet him. When he asked to the staff members, they told him that at about 1.00 p.m., the accused had come to the school and had said that the mother of the deceased is ill and on this pretext he had taken the deceased from the school. On this information, Yogesh Kumar Agrawal suspected that he must have kidnapped the deceased and he lodged a written report (Exh. P-1) with the Police, on which, an offence under Section 364, IPC was registered under Exh. P-2 and the investigation commenced.

(3.) THE driving licence of the accused was also seized from the possession of Yogesh Kumar Agrawal (P.W. 1) under Exh. P-5. THE blood stained soil, plain soil and 3 big stones were seized from the place of occurrence under Exh. P-6. As per the memorandum, the bicycle was seized under Exh. P-7. THE site plan was prepared by Patwari under Exh. P-11. Based on the above information, the merg intimation was recorded under Exh. P-12 and Dehati Nalishi was recorded under Exh. P-13.