STATE Vs. NARAYAN PADHAN AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Sub -Divisional Magistrate, Sambalpur committed 14 persons to the Court of sessions to stand their trial for an offence under Section 376, Indian Penal Code. At the trial stage the Public Prosecutor on behalf of the State made an application for separate trials. On the other hand the accused persons wanted one trial. The learned Trial Judge by his order dated 3 -11 -1970 came to hold that a joint trial of all the accused persons should take place. The State of Orissa has come up in revision challenging The direction of the learned Trial Judge.

(2.) THE short facts necessary for determining whether the learned Trial Judge is right may now be stated. The informant, the victims and the accused persons are all residents of one village. Three ladies along with their male folk had gone out to the fields and at sunset were returning to the village all in a group. The accused persons 14 in number were sitting at one end of the village. The three ladies were going behind the male members of their families. The male folk had walked ahead and the ladies were following, and at the point when they came to pass the accused persons the three ladies were pulled out by three different groups of the accused persons. They were taken to different places and each of them was raped by a group of them. It is alleged that one lady was raped by four persons, another by six (sic) the third by seven. It is also alleged that one or two from one group bad gone over the other group after the raping was over at the first place.