PANNALAL SHAW Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Concurrent findings recorded by the trial and the appellate courts bolding the petitioners to be guilty and convicting them for the offences of house-breaking under Section 457 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, the Code) and dacoity under Section 395 of the Code are under challenge in this batch of Criminal Revisions. Each of the petitioners has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- and in default of payment thereof, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months under Section 457 of the Code and to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- and in default of payment thereof, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months under Section 395 of the Code. During the pendency of these Criminal Revisions, Birendra Kumar Patnaik, petitioner No. 1 in Criminal Revision No. 120 of 1983, died and no legal representatives of his have been brought on the record because he bas not left any, as submitted by the learned counsel for this petitioner.

(2.) The petitioners, it was alleged, being armed with deadly weapons, entered the dwellings house of Dibakar Panigrahl (P.W. 4), while he was functioning as an Executive Engineer at Budhibili in the district of Dbenkanal, during the night of July 8/9, 1981 at about 1-30 a.m. while his family members including his wife (P.W. 3) were asleep with an employee (P.W. 9) sleeping at another place and committed dacoity in the course of which a number of gold ornaments, cash and other articles were removed causing hurt to the inmateli of the house and keeping them under grave fear and restraint. After commission of dacoity, the culprits took to their heels. They intended to escape by driving away in an Ambassador car bearing registration No. ORR 1102 in which they had traveled and which had been left nearby. But as one of the tyres got flat, they were stranded and they moved in different directions for their escape when some of them were caught by the villagers and some by the police authorities who had come to the scene in the course of investigation on the basis of the first information report (Ext. 1) lodged by P.W. 4 before the Officer-in-charge of the police station who had come to the spot on receiving a telephonic message that a dacoity had been committed in the house of P.W. 4. A number of articles removed during the commission of dacoity were recovered from the petitioners. In the course of investigation, a test identification parade was held for the identification of the culprits by P.Ws. 3, 4 and 9. On the completion of investigation, a charge-sheet was placed against the petitioners under Sections 395,457 and 412 of the Code and they stood charged for the commission of these offences.

(3.) The prosecution had examined twenty one witnesses. The petitioners, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges and whose case was one of denial and false implication, had not examined any witness on their behalf.