SANTOSH GHOSH Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In Sessions Trial No. 1(7) of 1999 arising out of Sessions Case No. 6(1) of 1999 the appellants-accused were charged of having committed murder of Mrs. Arati Mukherjee, wife of late Asim Mukherjee in furtherance of their common intention and were found guilty of having committed offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay 5,000/- each in default imprisonment for 6 months. This is challenged by the appellants-accused by way of this appeal.

(2.) It is the prosecution's case that Mrs. Arati Mukherjee, the deceased, was employed by Durgapur Steel Plant on the death of her husband, Asim Mukherjee. While working she developed intimate relations with Santosh Ghosh (appellant no. 1) and at times used to go out along with him. On the fateful day i.e., on 6.7.1997 Santosh Ghosh visited Mrs. Arati Mukherjee at her house and took her away with him on the pretext of visiting Rather Mela' at village Pakhanna situated within the jurisdiction of P.S. Borjora. On the next day, a person from village Pakhanna came to the house where Mrs. Arati Mukherjee was residing along with her sister Mrs. Mira Rani Acharya (P.W. 1) and others and informed that Arati was murdered in the house of Santoshbabu at village Pakhanna. As a result of this information, Mrs. Mira Rani Acharya (P.W. 1) accompanied with her son Durgapada Acharya (P.W. 2), Siddheswar Nanda (P.W. 3) and Rathin Ganguly went to the house of Santoshbabu at village Pakhanna. On reaching the house they saw the dead body of Mrs. Arati Mukherjee lying on a mat with one pillow on her head in the bedroom of Santoshbabu. They noticed marks of assault over the dead body causing bleeding injuries on the head, forehead and chest. On inquiry from the appellant-accused Santosh Ghosh they came to know that due to quarrel between the appellants-accused Santosh Ghosh, Pradip Ghosh and Mrs. Arati Mukherjee, Arati was brutally assaulted causing her death. On this Mrs. Mira Rani Acharya (P.W. 1) along with her son and nephew went to Borjora P.S. and lodged a report (Exbt. 1) which was treated as an FIR (Exbt. 5). On receipt of the report, officer in-charge of Borjora P.S. registered P.S. Case No. 48/97 under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and entrusted the investigation to PSI Baroda Prasad Dey (P.W. 14) who along with the staff visited the place of occurrence, i.e., the house of appellant-accused Santosh Ghosh in village Pakhanna and found the dead body of the Mrs. Arati Mukherjee @ Ghosh in the Western side of the bed room of appellant-accused Santosh Ghosh. Thereafter, in the presence of the witnesses prepared the inquest report (Exbt. 7) and seized certain articles and the dead body was sent for postmortem examination. The Investigating Officer in course of investigation recorded the statement of witnesses and on the next day arrested the appellants-accused at their residence and at their instance a blood stained axe (Mat. Exbt. 4) came to be seized. The seized articles were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory. After completing investigation, charge sheet against the appellants-accused was filed.

(3.) During trial, the appellants-accused pleaded not guilty to the charge of having committed murder of Mrs. Arati Mukherjee @ Ghosh and claimed to be tried. It was their case that some unknown persons might have committed murder of Mrs. Arati Mukherjee and they suspected that the sister of the deceased Mrs. Mira Rani Acharya (P.W. 1) and her relatives might have got her killed through an assassin. The prosecution in all examined 14 witnesses; whereas in defence the appellants-accused examined 21 witnesses including the appellant-accused Santosh Kumar Ghosh who examined himself as one of the witnesses. On conclusion of the trial, the learned Additional Sessions Judge found that the prosecution has proved that the appellants-accused have committed the murder and, therefore, having found them guilty, sentenced them to suffer imprisonment for life and fine.