RAJESH GADODIA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Criminal Revision has been filed by one Rajesh Gadodia, who happens to be the informant and Prosecution Witness No.1 in S.T. Case No.169 of 2014. The above Criminal Revision arises out of a common judgment dated 13.9.2007 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Sundargarh in S.T. Case No.169 of 2004 in which the learned Sessions Judge while recording conviction with regard to five accused persons under Sections 364A/34, 342/34 and 120B of Indian Penal Code has acquitted opp. parties 2, 3 and 4 of all the charges under Sections 364A/34 IPC, 342/34 IPC, 120B IPC, 395 of I.P.C. and Sections 25/27 of Arms Act. The above indicated five convicts, however, were acquitted of the charges under Section 395 IPC and Sections 25/27 of Arms Act. Out of these five convicts, four convicts, namely, Roshan Ali, Rajan Mishra, Shamim Sidique and Virendra Jaiswal have filed CRLA No.541 of 2007, CRLA No.526 of 2007, CRLA No.385 of 2008 and CRLA No.532 of 2007 respectively. These four Criminal Appeals were taken up for hearing along with this Criminal Revision. The CRLA No.523 of 2007 filed by the fifth convict-Atul Pandey was not taken up for hearing as presently he is absconding. However, for the sake of convenience, this separate judgment is being pronounced with regard to Criminal Revision No.1426 of 2007.

(2.) At the outset, it may be indicated that after the judgment was reserved in all the four Criminal Appeals along with this Criminal Revision, Mr.B.Sahoo, learned counsel for opp. party No.3 in the present Criminal Revision filed an affidavit sworn to by one Alekha Prasad, father of opp. party No.3 accompanied by a memo to the effect that in the meantime opp. party No.3-Rajendra Prasad has died on 27.05.2011.

(3.) Since S.R. was not back from opp. party No.2 in the present Criminal Revision, this Court appointed Mr. N.Beuria, Advocate as amicus curiae to assist the Court on behalf of opp. party No.2.