SANKAR KUMAR DUTTA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have heard this Appeal and Reference together.

(2.) The appellant Sankar Kumar Dutta alias Haran Dutta, a police constable, was charged under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for committing four murders by causing the death of (1) his wife Pusparani Dutta, (2) his eldest son aged about five years, (3) his second son aged about three years and (4) his youngest female child aged only a few months. He was unanimously found guilty by the jury. The learned Sessions Judge of Nadia in accepting that verdict and sentencing him to death said:

(3.) This objection was never taken either when the jurors were empanelled or when objections to the individual jurors were allowed or oven at any stage, during the whole course of trial, in fact this objection was never taken on behalf of the appellant until the matter came up before us in appeal and reference and that also at the very last moment when the matter was actually taken up for hearing. It is said that the learned Advocate for the appellant examining the records in the case which have been sent to this Court discovered the fact of this identity between a witness to the inquest report Amarendra Nath Chatterjee and the juror Amarendra Nath Chatterjee.