BHASKAR BARIHA Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Assailing the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 22.01.2005 passed by the learned Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge (F.T.), Padampur in S.T. Case No.186/15 of 1998/S.T. Case No.32 of 2004, the appellant has preferred the present appeal from jail. The appellant has been found guilty for the commission of offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The prosecution case sans unnecessary details, is that the informant Sadananda Bariha (P.W.3) is the cousin brother of the appellant. The deceased Sakuntala Bariha was the wife of the informant. The appellant and the informant along with other brothers were staying in their houses fell to their respective shares. The appellant had left his wife in her father's place at village Balipata on account of some dispute between them relating to having no issue. Two days prior to the date of occurrence, there was some quarrel between the appellant and the deceased and the deceased made aspersion against the appellant for not bringing his wife back from her father's place. It is the further prosecution case that in the morning hours on 29.05.1998, while the deceased was cleaning potherb leaves (in Odia 'Saga') in her courtyard for cooking, the appellant all of a sudden came there holding an axe and dealt a blow on the neck of the deceased with that axe from her backside. The axe pierced and stuck in the neck of the deceased and the appellant ran away from the spot. P.W.1 Radhika Bariha, the wife of younger brother of the informant saw the assault on the deceased by the appellant and raised hulla for which her husband and others rushed to the spot and they immediately shifted the deceased to the hospital where she was declared dead.

(3.) During course of trial, the prosecution examined eleven witnesses.