NARI LEPCHA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant was a Constable in IRB Sikkim Police, who was charged with murdering his five colleagues while on duty. Appellant was tried for the offence of murder and vide judgment of 24th August, 2015, he stood convicted for the offences under Sections 302/201/182 of IPC. Vide impugned order of 23rd December, 2015, appellant has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for the offence of murder and for the offence under Section 201 of IPC, he has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years with default clause and for the offence under Section 182 of IPC, he has been sentenced to simple imprisonment for six months.

(2.) The facts as noted in impugned judgment are that on 11th March, 2007 at about 04:55 A.M., an information was received by local police regarding firing having taken place at Dena Bank, Golcha Cinema, Delhi and the police, on reaching the spot, had found that appellant was standing in injured condition with PCR officials outside Dena Bank Chest and appellant was having injuries on his right shoulder, head, left foot toe and right knee. Police found three dead bodies lying on a cot in the mezzanine floor and one dead body was found on the floor near the cot and another dead body was found on the floor of store room-cum-kitchen. Appellant had identified the deceased as Ct. Santabir Tamang, L/N Vishal Tewari, Ct. Karma Bhutia D-Coy IRB Sikkim. He had also identified the dead body, which was lying on the floor of the store room-cum-kitchen, as that of Kumar Basneet and the dead body, which was lying on the floor of the store room-cum-kitchen, as that of Laxman Subba. One axe was found lying near the toilet and three SLR Rifles without magazines were found in the rack and one Khukhri was found under the cover of the boiler of the store room in the kitchen. Just on the entrance of the ground floor, one SLR rifle having magazine was found near the wall which led to the carbine. One magazine was lying on the floor of the strong-room towards outside and one live cartridge was also found there. Some empty cartridges, bullet lead, part of bullet lead and live cartridges were also found. Fired arm marks were also found on the wall and door of the bathroom and large quantity of blood was found on the floor, cots, bed and store room-cum-kitchen.

(3.) The initial version given by appellant to the local police, as noted in impugned judgment, is as under: -