MADKAMI IRMA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On the basis of a letter issued by accused convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jeypore in Sessions Case No. 413 of 1993 under Section 302/34 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, this Jail Criminal Appeal has been registered.

(2.) The criminal action was set in motion on the basis of an FIR filed at the Malkangiri Police Station on 16.8.1993 by P.W.1, the son of the deceased in this case. It was alleged that his father Bhima Kabasi was the Headman of their village Kasalbedha. The two appellants were alleged to have stolen a cock from the house of a neighbouring villagers and had made a feast out of it. On receiving complaint in that regard, the deceased sent for the appellants to attend the Punch meeting, but instead of attending the Punch meeting the appellants left the village. On the next day when the deceased was proceeding to his cultivable land which was at a distance of one furlong from his house, the appellants followed him being armed with bow and arrow and Tangia. All of a sudden, appellant No. 1 Madkami Irma shot an row which hit the deceased on his left side chest. The deceased fell down on the ground. Thereafter the other appellant Madkami Podiya assaulted him with a Tangia. Seeing this incident when P.Ws. 5 and 6 raised hulla the appellants ran away. P.W.5 then called P.W.1 to the pot who found his father dead. P.W.1 went to the police station and lodged the FIR. After investigation, police submitted charge sheet against the appellants under Sections 302/34 IPC and the appellants faced trial.

(3.) Prosecution in order to substantiate its case examined as many as eight witnesses of whom P.W.1 was the informant who was the son of the deceased and a co-villager of the appellants. He had not seen the occurrence but to have arrived at the spot soon after the occurrence. His evidence was not of much help to the prosecution. P.W.2 was a Police Constable who had escorted the dead-body for postmortem. P.Ws.3 and 4 were the witnesses to seizure. The only two eye-witnesses to the occurrence were P.Ws. 5 and 6. P.W.5 Madi Irma deposed that all of a sudden appellant No. 1 came near the deceased and shot an arrow which hit the deceased on the left side of his chest and the deceased fell down on the ground. Thereafter appellant No. 2 assaulted the deceased with an axe and then they ran away. On his cross-examination it was elicited that the deceased was the Headman of their village P.W.6 was another eye-witness. He also more or less repeated the facts narrated by P.W.5.