UTTAM BISWAS Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this appeal, the appellant has called in question the legality and propriety of the impugned judgment dated 15.4.2005 passed in SC No. 10/2002 SC No.(52/2002) by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Nabarangpur, convicting the appellant under section 302 of I.P.C. and sentencing him to undergone rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) The prosecution case as revealed from the F.I.R. in nutshell is that the appellant is the nephew of the deceased Laxmirani Biswas. Both of them were in inimical term due to civil dispute. On 21.8.2001 at about 6.00 a.m., the appellant assaulted the deceased with a kati and severed her head from the trunk and proceeded to the police station with severed head in one hand and blood stained of kati on the other hand. Several villagers saw the accused proceeding towards the Police Station. The matter was intimated to the police. On arrival of the appellant at the police station, appellant was arrested, the weapon of offence was seized and the matter was investigated by the Officer-in-charge, Raighar Police Station, who held inquest over the head and trunk of the body of the deceased, sent the body for post-mortem to Zonal Hospital, Umerkote. He also sent the weapon of offence, l.e., kati, seized wearing apparels of the appellant as well as the deceased, sent the exhibits for chemical examination. The appellant was arrested and after completion of investigation, the I.O. submitted charge-sheet against the appellant under section 302 Indian Penal Code.

(3.) In order to bring home charge the prosecution examined 16 witnesses. P.W. 1 Manas Ranjan Biswal is the scribe of the F.I.R. (Ext. 1) P.W. 2 and P.W. 3 did not support the prosecution case for which, they were declared hostile. P.W. 4 Bimal Kumar Sana is the informant who saw the appellant going toward Raighar with the severed head of his aunt and kati. He reported the matter at Raighar Police Station P.W. 5 Prasanjit Sana is an eye-witness to the occurrence P.W. 6 did not support the prosecution case P.W. 7 Surendranath Mandal is a photographer who took the photographs of the dead body of the deceased. P.W. 8 Satyanarayan Jhawar is a witness to the inquest. P.W. 9 Subhash Chandra Sarkar is a witness to the inquest and seizure of different articles. P.W. 10 Nirmal Kumar Sana is a co-villager of the appellant who stated to have seen the appellant going towards Police Station with the severed head of the deceased and kati. P.W. 11 Digamber Panigrahi a constable who is a witness to the seizure of the wearing apparels of the deceased vide seizure list (Ext. 11). P.W. 12 Pradip Karmakar is a blacksmith who did not support the prosecution case. P.W. 13 Bishnu Sardar is a formal witness. P.W. 14 Chandra Singh Chalan is a Police Constable and witness. P.W. 14 Chandra Singh Chalan is a police Constable and witness to the seizure of nail clipping of the appellant as per seizure list (Ext. 10) P.W. 15 Dr. S. Dash who conducted post-mortem examination over the dead body of the diseased and opinion the cause of death was due to chopping of head. P.W. 16, B.S. Das who was the officer-in-charge of Raighar Police station as the investigating Officer. No witness has been examined on behalf of the defence.