PRAMOD PRADHAN Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has assailed the judgment and order dated 29 11.1999 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Dhenkanal - Angul, Dhenkanal in S.T. No. 32D of 1997 convicting him under Section 302, IPC and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, as narrated in the FIR, is that in the night of 07.01.1997 all the inmates of the house of the informant having taken their night food went to sleep at about 10.00 PM. The deceased along with his wife slept inside the paddy husking room (Dhinkisal) by the side of the fire that was lit in the room to scare away the January winter cold. The accused, who is the brother of the deceased and had been residing in village Baladiabandha 8 to 9 months ago, had come to the village on 06.01.1997 and was staying in the house of the deceased. To warm up himself, the accused sat by the side of the said fire. In the night at about 3.00 AM P.W.2, the wife of the deceased, shouted that the accused assaulted the deceased on his head by means of a piece of wood. Hearing her shout, the informant and other inmates of the house got up and seeing that the deceased had sustained severe bleeding injury telephoned to the hospital for ambulance and immediately shifted him to Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital for treatment. While undergoing treatment, he succumbed to the injuries there. P.W.3 lodged FIR on receipt of which the police registered the case, proceeded with the investigation and after its completion submitted charge-sheet against the appellant under section 302, IPC.

(3.) Plea of the accused is one of complete denial. His specific plea is that to garb his landed property, the prosecution has falsely implicated him in the case.