PARIKHITA JENA AND 2 ORS. Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE three Appellants have been convicted under Section 304/148 Indian Penal Code and each of them has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for seven years by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Cuttack.

(2.) APPELLANT No. 3 is the son of Appellant No. 2 and all the Appellants are against. The prosecution case in short is that the Appellants along with many others were members of an unlawful assembly being armed with deadly weapons and in prosecution of their common object they committed the murder of one Siba Jena by intentionally causing Me death they also caused both simple and grievous injuries on the persons of Tila Jena (p.w. 19), Siba Pirei (p.w. 16), Haladhar Pirei (p.w. 10), Champa Bewa. (p.w. 9) and Chancheri Dei (p.w. 22) with sharp cutting weapons at about 11 'O' clock in the morning on 10 -12 -1965.

(3.) THE defence taken in the Court below was that seven of the accused persons were not present at the spot and were not within the mob. The remaining four persons including the three Appellants admitted their presence at the spot at the time of occurrence, but gave a very different account of what happened. According to them when Appellant No. 2 and one Bhikari (since acquitted) ware in their field the deceased picked up quarrel with them and taking the assistance of the persons who were near about including his nephew Kirtan assaulted Bhikari seriously. To protect Bhikari Appellants 1 and 3 and another person came to the spot with arms. There was mutual fight after which both the parties left the place. Umakanta (Appellant No. 3) and Bhikari received injuries on their persons.