STATE Vs. ARU PRADHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Hanging in the balance between life and death with an order of conviction recorded by the Court of Session against him under S.302, Penal Code (for short, the Code) with a direction that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead, the accused-convict (described hereinafter as the 'appellant') has appealed against the judgment and order. The learned Sessions Judge has made a reference to this Court for confirmation of the sentence of death. The death reference and the criminal appeal have been heard together and will be governed by this judgment.

(2.) The case of the prosecution and the plea of the appellant have been set out in details in the judgment of the trial court. There had been land dispute between the appellant and his mother Labanya, who also figured as a co-accused being charged of abetment of the commission of the offence of murder by the appellant, on the one hand and Hadiani alias Urbasi Pradhan (hereinafter described as the 'deceased'), born through step-mother of the appellant, on the other, over the properties left by Kaira Pradhan, his father. After the deceased successfully instituted a suit against the appellant and obtained a decree and had obtained an ex parte order of restraint against the appellant and the co-accused in a proceeding under S.144, Cr PC and after having taken possession partially of the lands she was entitled to on 18-1-1983 and the rest of the lands was to be demarcated on the day following, the appellant, it was alleged, on the day following, i.e. on 19-1-1983, at about 10 a.m., attacked the deceased while she was moving on the road at village Talagad where she had come, under the instigation of the co-accused to kill her, caught hold of the hairs of the deceased who had been carrying her child aged about one and a half years as a result of which she fell down and the appellant pressed her chest and cut her throat by the Katari he was holding which resulted in the death of the deceased. The appellant left the place with the Katari stained with blood which was witnessed by Banshidhar Maharana (P.W. 7), who had his black-smith shop nearby and Udayanath Sahu (P.W. 8), who had come to that place to have his Tangia sharpened, besides Chakra Sahu (not examined), who was also in the blacksmith shop and there, the appellant made an extrajudicial confession before them that he had cut the throat of the deceased and that he had been going to the police station. The occurrence had been witnessed by four co-villagers of the appellant, namely, Asha Pradhan (P.W. 2), Kumar Sahu (P.W. 4), Sudhakar Behera (P.W. 5) and Prasanna Sahu (P.W. 6). The child of the deceased was brought and kept by P.W. 2 after her murder. On receiving information from Nishanath Sahu (D.W. 1) that the appellant had killed the deceased, the Grama Rakshi (P.W. 1), a resident of Bandanposi, who was also the Grama Rakshi for this village, came to the village of the appellant, enquired from some villagers as to what had happened and then went and lodged the first information report (Ext. 1) at the Talcher Police Station on which basis investigation was taken up by the Officer-in-charge (P.W. 13) who, in course of investigation, arrested the appellant and the co-accused and seized a banian (M.O. I.) with stains of blood in it from the person of the appellant on 21-1-1983. A lathi (M.O. II) had been seized from the verandah of the appellant's house. On the completion of investigation, a charge-sheet was placed and the appellant and the co-accused were prosecuted.

(3.) The appellant stood charged under S.302 of the Code for having committed the murder of the deceased and the co-accused stood charged under S.302 read with S.114 of the Code for abetment of the commission of the offence of murder. To bring home the charges, the prosecution had examined thirteen witnesses. The plea of the appellant and the co-accused was one of the denial and false implication. The appellant had set up a plea of alibi and his case was that he was away from his village on the date of occurrence. Three witnesses had been examined for the defence.