KARUNI SAMAL AND 16 ORS. Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ORIGINALLY twenty -two accused persons were tried under divers sections of Indian Penal Code. Five of them have been acquitted and the rest, who are seventeen in number, have preferred this appeal. Appellants 1 to 17 are respectively accused nos, 1, 2, 4 to 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 and 19 to 22 in the Court of session.

(2.) APPELLANT No. 1 was charged under Section 302, Indian Penal Code and has been convicted thereunder and sentenced to imprisonment for life. In addition, he had also been charged under Sections 148 and 337, Indian Penal Code jointly with other accused persons and was also convicted thereunder but no separate sentence has been passed against him.

(3.) THE Officer -in -Charge of Choudwar Police Station at the time (P.W.16) gut the F.I.R. recorded by one A.S.I., K.C. Das (Ex. 20), registered the case and took up investigation. He immediately examined P.W. 1 at the police station and proceeded to the spot in a police jeep at 8 -30 p. m. accompanied by his A.S.I. and staff. On the way he met the deceased being carried in a rickshaw by P.W. 3 another son of P.W. 1, P.W. 12 and one Udia Bewa. He sent Puni Bewa, P.W. 1 and P.W. 12 to the E.S.I. Hospital for medical examination. They were examined by the doctor P.W. 5. He gave injury reports Exts. 2 and 3, respectively in respect of PWs. 1 and 12 and after giving first aid treatment to the deceased referred her to the S.C.B. Medical College Hospital, Cuttack. The deceased expired on her way to the S.C.B. Medical College Hospital and the dead body was brought back to the police station. In the meantime, P.W. 16 went to the village of occurrence, carried out some investigation in course of which he visited the house of P.W. 1 and found his front courtyard covered with stones and a patch of blood mark just below his thatch in front of the P.W. 4's room. He found a damaged rickshaw at a distance of 8".6" from the blood patch. He found the house of Rama (deceased), brother of P.W. 14, situated to the south -east of P.W. 1's house, facing towards north, completely gutted. That was a single house having no other house adjacent or contiguous to it, though the houses of P.W. 12 and of Doli Samal are situated at a distance towards its west. He found near the site of the burnt house half burnt straw, ashes, broken earthen pots and paddy grains in half burnt condition lying scattered about in the courtyard of the "house. He also found stones lying scattered in the village Danda extending from the Akhadaghar on the east to the house of Appellant No. 1 on the west covering a distance of about 300 yards. The houses of P.W. 11 and P.W. 1 are intervened by village Danda which was also covered with brickbats. A cycle rickshaw belonging to P.W. 11 was found lying upset and damaged in front of his house. The front courtyard of the house of one Murali Samal situated to the west of P.W. 11's house was also found filled with brickbats. He searched for the accused persons in the village twice that night, once before midnight and again after midnight but found them absent, He then recorded the statements of PWs. 2. 3 and 4. seized some blood stained earth and some stones lying in front of P.W. 1's house under seizure list Ex.9, some ashes and half burnt straw from the burnt house of Rama, brother of P.W. 14, under seizure list Ex.12, the damaged rickshwa from the front courtyard of P.W. 11 under seizure list Ex.10, and some stones from the village path extending from the Akhadaghar to the house of accused Karuni under seizure list Ex.11. He searched the houses of Appellants 1 and 2 during their absence but found nothing incriminating. He heard at the village that Puni Bewa had succumbed to her injuries and that her dead body was lying at the police station. He, therefore, posted his constable in the village to search for the accused persons and to be on the look out for them and returned to the police station at 7 a. m, on 9 -5 -1968 and held inquest over the dead body of the deceased and prepared inquest report (Ex. 17). At 7 -30 a. m. he sent the dead body to Cuttack Medical College Hospital for postmortem examination.