BHASKAR Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for committing murder of a young child aged about 2 and 1/2 years. He has also been sentenced for offence under Sec. 201 of the Indian Penal Code (I.P.C.) by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Rairangpur in S.T. Case No.14/2012.

(2.) The Appellant is an old man aged about 62 years residing in village Sundhal. The deceased Anirudha is the grandson of the informant - Sasi Bhusan Si (P.W.3) i.e. the son of his daughter Manorama Dhal who married to Surjit Dhal of village Kumbhirda. The deceased child is their son. On the occasion of Kali Puja in the year 2011, both Manorama and Surjit (P.Ws.9 and 8) had been to the house of the informant along with their son (the deceased). On 26/10/2011, on the Kali Puja day, when the deceased was playing in the evening at around 7.00 p.m. he was found missing. Thereafter the informant and other villagers searched for the deceased everywhere, but could not find. At about 2.45 A.M. when P.W.3 along with others was searching for the deceased, they heard a sound coming from the well situated in the Bari of the Appellant and they run towards the well. They saw the Appellant by torchlight standing near the well in bare body wearing a full pant folded at the bottom. They further saw the dead body of the deceased floating in water of the well. The dead body was immediately lifted up and the witnesses found that his tongue and left hand little finger were severed. Thereafter the Appellant went away to his house.

(3.) The dead body of the deceased was taken by his parents to their house at village Kumbhirda and was cremated on 27/10/2011. On the next day, P.W.3 convened a meeting in his village, i.e., at Sundhal. In the said meeting, the Appellant did not participate. The meeting was deferred to the afternoon and the Appellant attended the meeting this time. In the said meeting, the Appellant confessed to have killed the deceased for human sacrifice before Kali Mata.