ANIRUDHA TAKRI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant having been convicted under Sections 364/302, I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for eight years for the offence under Section 364, I.P.C. and imprisonment for life for the offence under Section 302, I.P.C. by the learned Ad hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Gunupur in Criminal Trial No. 32 of 2002 has preferred this appeal from jail.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that on 19-3-1998, the informant (P.W.2), who is the elder brother of the deceased, reported orally in the Ambadola P. S. alleging that since 4 to 5 years there was enmity between the deceased and the appellant due to political rivalry and during the last selection of Secretary of Raghubari Panchayat, there was a difference of opinion between them. On 13-3-1998, the appellant came to the house of the deceased and called him to go to Muniguda for receiving the amount towards the contract work from office of the B. D. O. The deceased refused, but the appellant managed to take him. From that day, the deceased did not return home. On the date of reporting, at about 12 noon, one Ganjan Chhhati of village Dimiriguda came to the house of the informant and told him that the appellant has murdered the deceased on the Verandah of his house. The informant along with other co-villagers went to the house of the appellant and found the deceased lying dead on a wooden cot on the verandah of the appellant. There were severe injuries on his face, head and other parts of the body and stains of blood were there on the verandah and wall. Seeing this, the informant enquired from P. W. 4, P. W. 5 and other villagers and learnt that the appellant assaulted the deceased with a tangia and committed his murder and fled away while he was sleeping on a cot lying on the verandah of the house of the appellant. P. W. 13 reduced the same to writing, registered the case and took up investigation. During investigation, the I. O. examined the witnesses, sent the dead body for post mortem, seized the weapon of offence and the wearing apparels of the deceased and arrested the appellant. While the appellant was in custody, his disclosure statement (Ext. 6) was recorded under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. After completion of the investigation, P. W. 13 filed charge-sheet against the appellant under Sections 364/302 I.P.C.

(3.) The plea of the appellant is one of complete denial and false implication. His specific plea is that a week prior to the alleged occurrence. he was absent from his house as he had been to Lanjigarh and that somebody else might have committed the murder of the deceased and kept the dead body on his verandah in order to save himself from the criminal liability.