BATTAM @ GAUTAM BHAISA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 28 -1 -1988 of the learned Sessions Judge, Sambalpur convicting the Appellant under Sections 302 and 201, I.P.C. and sentencing him respectively to imprisonment for life and rigorous imprisonment for seven years, both the sentences having been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, facts of the case are these:

(3.) IN order to prove its case prosecution has examined as many as twelve witnesses of whom p.w. 1, the father of the deceased is the informant, p. ws. 2,3,4,5 and 7 are the witnesses to extra judicial confession made by the accused, p. w. 6 is a witness to the recovery of dead body from inside the well, by p. w. 11, p. w. 8 is a constable carrying the dead body for post mortem examination, p.ws. 9,10 and 11 are the Investigating Officers and p. w. 12 is the medical officer, conducting autopsy on the dead body of the deceased. Learned Trial Judge relied on the evidence of the extra judicial confession made by the accused before p. ws. 2 to 5 and 7 besides the circumstantial evidence namely, the prior illicit love between the accused and the deceased and the missing of the deceased from the house and the absence of the accused from the place of his stay in the night of 6/7 -1 -1987. There being no direct evidence in this case, he accepted the prosecution case relying on the items of evidence indicated above and held the accused guilty of the offence under Sections 302 and 201, I.P.C. and has convicted him thereunder.