ANANTA NAIK Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal U/s.374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'the Code') by the convicts challenging their conviction and sentence as recorded on 2/6/2001 in Sessions Trial No.131 of 1993, by which the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Angul convicted the appellants for commission of offence punishable U/s. 304 Part-I of the IPC and sentenced each them to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment (R.I.) for seven years.

(2.) The short history of the case is that on 3. 04.1993 at about 7 P.M. in the evening, the convict-Arta Naik while talking with Rahas Naik (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') in latter's house in village Ranigoda, the convict-Ananta Naik, who is the brother of convict-Arta Naik dealt an axe blow by coming there and thereafter, convict-Arta Naik indiscriminately assaulted the deceased by means of a stick making the deceased senseless. Prior to this occurrence on the same day, the goat of the deceased had eaten away the crops of the convicts and thereby, damaged it, but the deceased and his son had agreed to compensate the convicts. The wife and daughter-in-law of the deceased namely Hina Naik(P.W.7) and Sukumari Naik(P.W.8) respectively as well as some persons of the village namely Pravakar Naik and Bhakta Naik were present at the place of incident.

(3.) In support of its case, the prosecution examined altogether fourteen witnesses vide P.Ws. 1 to 14 and proved ten documents vide Exts.1 to 10 as against the sole oral evidence of one witness D.W.1 by the defence. The plea of convicts in the course of trial was that the deceased being in an inebriated condition fell down on the stone and sustained injury which resulted in his death. However, the convicts took the additional plea of denial simplicitor and false implication in their statements U/s.313 CrPC.