T VENKAT RAO Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the aforesaid matters arise out of an order dated 26.08.1987 passed by the learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Berhampur, in Sessions Case No. 7of 1987 (S.C.No. 70/87 G.D.C.) convicting the appellants in the Criminal Appeal, who are respondents in the Government Appeal and opposite parties in the Criminal Revision, under Sections 148, 325/149 and 323/149, of the Indian Penal Code (in short 'IPC') and sentencing them to undergo R.I. for 5 years under Sections 325/149, IPC; R.I. for 2 years under Section 148, IPC; and R.I. for one year under Section 323/149, IPC; the sentences to run concurrently. The appellants have filed the Criminal Appeal No. 172 of 1987 challenging the order of their conviction. While Criminal Revision No. 477 of 1987 has been filed by the informant with a prayer for enhancement of sentence, Government Appeal No. 15 of 2002 has been filed by the State challenging the order of acquittal of the accused persons of the offence under Section 302/149. IPC. State has made an alternative prayer to award adequate sentence for the conviction under Section 325/149, IPC. All the three cases have been heard together and this common judgment will govern all the cases.

(2.) THE prosecution case as unravelled during trial is as follows : At about mid night of 9/ 10.7.1986, Jodu @ Vinayak Torai (deceased) and his co villager Ramesh Swain (P.W.2) had been to the hotel of appellant T. Venkat Rao in an auto rickshaw. They placed orders for service of dinner. As the food was not upto their choice, they got agitated for the reason whereof there was severe brawl between the deceased Jodu @ Binayak Torai and P.W.2 Ramesh Swain on one hand and the appellants on the other. Both the deceased and P.W.2 had point blank refused to pay the price of the food, but the appellant Prakash Rao passed sarcastical remarks by saying that the hotel did not belong to the father of the deceased as well as P.W.2. On listening such scathing remarks, they got enraged and started damaging the articles of the hotel. At this, both the appellants Prakash Rao and T. Venkat Rao caught hold of the deceased while the other appellants, who were employees of the hotel, surrounded him. At this juncture, P.W.2, being excited by seeing that the deceased had been surrounded by the appellants, broke the light fittings by throwing a bench at the counter. Thereupon all the appellants being armed with lathi, cycle chains, iron rods and other lethal weapons severely assaulted the deceased and P.W.2 in front of the hotel when they attempted to flee away from the spot. One of the employees of the hotel, namely, Jogi Patra, who is also an appellant in the Criminal Appeal, brought out one 'Danti Kodi' (a lathi fitted with three pieces of iron rods) and dealt a heavy blow on the head of the deceased, as a result of which he sustained severe injury and fell down in front of the hotel. P.W.2. Ramesh Swain in order to save his life ran hither and thither from that place, but the appellants chased him being armed with the aforesaid weapons. In the process of running and being chased by the appellants, P.W.2 stumbled on the Podor land behind Bira Singh's hotel at a distance of about 500 feet from the hotel of appellant T. Venkat Rao. Even after he fell down on the ground, the assault on him continued unabated. But when the appellants found that the condition of P.W.2 was deterioting, they thought him to be dead and left the place.

(3.) THE defence plea was one of complete denial of prosecution case. The accused persons also pleaded that they have been falsely implicated. However, they declined to adduce any evidence in their support.