SUDIP MAZUMDAR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the judgment dated 10th December, 2009, by the Additional Sessions Judge, 4th Court, Nadia passed in Sessions Trial No. I(8) of 2006 (Sessions Case No. 104(11) of 2005), whereby the Learned Trial Judge has held the appellants herein guilty of charges Under Sections 302/34 of the IPC and sentenced the appellants to life imprisonment and has also imposed fine on them. The appellant no. 1 Sudip Majumdar is the brother of the deceased namely Mahua Das @ Maman. The appellant no. 2 Manos Das is the husband of the deceased.

(2.) The prosecution case arises out of a first information report lodged on 3rd June, 2005, at about 11.35 hours. The written complaint was filed at the instance of one Shankar Saha, who is a tenant in the ground floor of the building where the mother of the deceased resides and where the deceased resided with her mother for about a year prior to her death. It is alleged in the written complaint that on 3rd June, 2005 at about 1 a.m., on hearing hue and cry, the said Shankar Saha went to the first floor of the said building and found that the deceased was lying near the door of the kitchen and that she was ablaze. It is further alleged that the mother of the deceased poured water on the body of the deceased to put off fire while Sudip and Manos were standing in front of the door and abusing the deceased and her mother Anjana. On seeing the deceased on fire Shankar raised an alarm and some people of the neighbourhood rushed to the spot. The mother of the deceased and one Gitarani Sarkar, another tenant on the ground floor of the said building carried the deceased in burned condition to Pratap Nagar Hospital.

(3.) The deceased Mahua told at Pratap Nagar Hospital that her elder brother and husband had set fire on her. This is the crux of the written complaint. Mahua was subsequently referred to Shakti Nagar Hospital and then to SSKM Hospital, Calcutta, where Mahua succumbed to her burn injuries and died on 23rd June, 2005. The post mortem report records that her death was due to the effects of burn with secondary infection, ante-mortem in nature.