DEBARAJ BARAL Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both the appeals arise out of the judgment and order of sentence dated 13.12.2000 and 22.1.2001 respectively passed by learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Puri in Sessions Trial No. 7/106 of 1997. Learned Trial Court found accused Debaraj Baral (ap-pellant in JCRLA No. 30 of 2001) and accused Sukanta Kishore Baral and Akshaya Baral (ap-pellants in CRLA No. 33 of 2001) guilty of of-fence under Section 302/34, I.P.C. and sen-tenced each of them to suffer imprisonment for life.

(2.) Prosecution case, as found from the record, is that the occurrence happened in between 11 a.m. to 12 noon on 9.1.1994 at village Balikuda under Satyabadi P.S. in the district of Puri. De-ceased Chhaila Pradhan at that time was sitting on the verandah in front of his house. Sukanta Barai, Akshaya Baral and Debaraj Baral (present appellants) along with Sagar Baral and Budhinath Baral came in front of the house of the deceased Chhaila Pradhan and started abus-ing him in filthy language. The deceased pro-tested to such action of the appellant and oth-ers. Ail of a sudden, appellant Sukanta Baral and Akshaya Baral caught hold of the deceased, and at that time appellant Debaraj Baral dealt a 'farsha' blow on the head of the deceased and the deceased fell down unconscious at the spot. Laxmidhar Pradharl (P.W.9). who happens to be the son of deceased Chhaila Pradhan, raised hulia seeing the assault on his father. When the other witnesses came, the accused persons de-camped from the spot, and whiie so decamping appellant Sukanta Baral threw a 'katari' aiming at Laxmidhar Pradhan (P.W. 9), for which he sustained injuries on his right leg. On the basis of the report lodged by Laxmidhar Pradhan (P.W.9), a case for the offence punishable un-der Sections 341/342/323/326/307/354/34, I.P.C. was registered by the S.I. of Police, Satyabadi P.S. (examined as P. W.20). In course of treatment at hospital, deceased Chhaila, Pradhan succumbed to the injuries, and the case turned to one under Section 302, I.P.C. On completion of the investigation, the O.I.C. Satyabadi P.S. (P.W18), who took up the charge of investigation at a subsequent stage, filed charge-sheet.

(3.) The prosecution has examined 20 wit-nesses to prove the charge. P.W.9 is the infor-mant, P.Ws. 3 and 5 are eye-witnesses to the occurrence. P.W.I is the Medical Officer, who had examined deceased Chhaila Pradhan on police requisition and had also recorded his dying declaration vide Ext. 6. Subsequently P.W. 19 conducted post-mortem over the dead body of the deceased on his death. P.Ws. 2, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 do not support the prosecu-tion case. P.Ws.4 and 13 are witnesses to the seizure. P.W.6 is a witness to the recovery and seizure of the 'farsha', the weapon of offence, at the instance of convict Debaraj Baral. P.W. 14 is the witness to the inquest,. P.Ws. 15, 16 and 17 are the witnesses, who stated that they do not know anything about the occurrence. P.Ws. 18 and 20 are the Investigating Officers of the case.