STATE OF ORISSA Vs. BISHNU CHARAN MUDULI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants Bishu Charan Muduli. Rabindranath Swain, Pramod Kumar Barik. Suru Kama and Amrutlal Banchor stood charged with the co-accused Govinda Naik under S.120-B of the Penal Code (for short, 'the Code') for having entered into a conspiracy at Raikrakhol to kill N. Nanda Kumar Choudhury (to be described hereinafter as 'the deceased') in pursuance of which they killed him in the night of July 15, 1982. They also stood charged under S.396 of the Code for having committed dacoity in respect of cash and other properties of the deceased during the commission of which the deceased was murdered. The appellant Pramod Kumar Barik stood separately charged under S.404 of the Code for having dishonestly misappropriated or converted to his own use a gold ring fitted with a green stone by removing it from the possession of the deceased. The appellants Bishnu Charan Muduli and Rabindranath Swain stood charged under S.471 of the Code for having fraudulently or dishonestly used as genuine registration certificate book purported to be that of the truck bearing registration No. ORK 3577 which they knew or had reason to believe at the time of use to be forged document and under S.420 of the Code for having cheated the deceased and Krishna Steel Industries of Rajgangpur by dishonestly inducing them to deliver iron rods and G.C. sheets which were the properties of the deceased and Krishna Steel Industries by changing the registration certificate book and the number plate of the truck which actually bore the registration No. OSU 542. Three other co-accused persons, namely, Dindayal Agarwala, Santosh Kumar Saraf and Trailokya Sahu, stood charged under S.411 for having received stolen properties belonging to the deceased and under S.414 of the Code for concealing or disposing of or 'making away with' the properties of the deceased which they knew or had reason to believe to be stolen properties.

(2.) The case of the prosecution has been set out in details in the judgment of the trial court and we would make a brief narration in this judgment. Having entered into a contract with Jagabandhu Biswal (P.W.40), the owner of the truck bearing registration No. OSU 542, the appellant Bishnu Charan Muduli, who had been working as the driver of the truck with Uttam Kumar Nath (P.W.39) working as its helper, took the truck on hire on July 12, 1982 carrying in it cattle feed belonging to Rabin Kumar Gupta (P.W.45), a businessman at Jode, with the appellant Rabindranath Swain as the Khalasi without taking the helper (P.W.39) on the pretext that he would remain for payment of the arrear taxes for the vehicle. The cattle feed was unloaded at Jode in the morning of July 13, 1982. The appellants Bishnu Charan and Rabindranath proceeded from Jode to Rajgangpur having changed on the way the number plate of the truck assigning a false number thereto, viz., ORK 3577 and keeping with them a fake and forged registration certificate book in respect of ORK 3577. At Rajgangpur, the iron rods purchased from Krishna Steel Industries and the G.C. sheets purchased from Bijay Commercial Company at Rourkela by the deceased were loaded in the truck. The total value of the articles was about Rs. 60,000/-. The deceased sat in the truck which carried the goods for his shop standing in the name of his elder brother N. Dillip Kumar Choudhury (P.W.58) at Sorada and for the shop of his nephew Bhaktaram at Badakodanda near Bhanjanagar, both the places being situate in the district of Ganjam. The aforesaid two appellants and the deceased travelled in the truck together from Rajgangpur to Maneswar via Sundergarh and Jharsuguda having purchased diesel on the way at Sundergarh. As one of the tyres got flat, it was repaired by the appellant Bishnu Charan at Maneswar in the tyre repairing shop of Pitambar Purohit (P.W.67). At Maneswar, the appellant Pramod Kumar Barik joined the other two appellants. There, the appellant Pramod requested Sanatan Guduki (P.W.65) to help him and the other appellants in killing the deceased so that he would be paid Rs. 1,000/-. P.W.65, after consulting Panchanan Gunduki (P.W.68), refused. The three appellants and the deceased then travelled to Rairakhol while the appellant Pramod Kumar was driving the vehicle. It was halted at Rairakhol at about 11.30 p.m. The three appellants took their food in the hotel of Bholanath Sarma where the approver Pranabandhu Behera (P.W.1), the co-accused Govinda Naik and the appellants Amrutlal Banchor and Suru Karna had been working as servants and all of them entered into a conspiracy to kill the deceased on the way and loot his properties. It has been agreed that the hotel servants were to be paid a sum of Rs. 5,000/- after commission of the murder of the deceased. As planned, the approver and the hotel servants proceeded ahead and stopped at a short distance from Rairakhol. The truck proceeded and they got into it on the way on the pretext that they would go in it on payment of fare. At a distance of about 15 KMs. from Rairakhol, the truck was halted and taken to a kutcha road towards village Kutasinghe on the false plea that the appellant Bishnu would answer the call of nature. There, the deceased went out to answer the call of nature being watched by the approver and the other accused persons named above. When the deceased returned to the truck, the appellants and the approver besides the co-accused Govinda threatened him and asked him to give away his moveables. Owing to grave fear for his life, the deceased parted with a sum of Rs. 800/- and his wrist watch (M.O.V) and the cash were kept by the appellant Suru Karna. The accused persons including the approver then pulled the deceased from the truck and assaulted him by dealing leg kicks, hand blows and blows by two wooden Gutukas (M.Os. II and III) kept in the truck, in spite of the deceased's entreating them not to kill him as he had parted with his belongings and he had married recently. The culprits did not pay any heed, assaulted him to death and threw away the dead body in a bush nearby. The gold ring which was in the hand of the deceased was taken away by the appellant Pramod Kumar and was later converted by him through the goldsmith Panchanan Sahu (P.W.23) into a Guna (mpse prnament) for Sabitri Badi (P.W.66) having kept the green stone fitted to the ring in the compass box of Sabitri. After killing the deceased and looting the properties from his person, the truck was brought back to the outskirts of Rairakhol where the approver and the hotel servants were left. The truck was then brought to Cuttack with the iron rods and G.C. sheets which were sold away to the co-accused Trailokya alias Trilochan Sahu, Santosh Kumar Saraf and Dindayal Agarwala. Thereafter, the appellant Bishnu Charan, in the company of the appellant Rabindranath, returned the truck to its owner (P.W.40) in the presence of the helper (P.W.39).

(3.) In the meantime, the relations of the deceased at Sorada, who had been expecting the deceased back home with the purchased articles within a couple of days, waited till July 19, 1982 and thereafter, on July 29, 1982, Ramakanta Prusti (P.W.56) received the invoices from Krishna Steel Industries through post. It could be known from these documents that the articles had been sent from Rajgangpur in a truck on July 14, 1982. P.W.56 went to Rajgangpur on July 20, 1982 for enquiry about the materials and the deceased. A couple of days thereafter, P.W.58 with some others went to Rajgangpur and ascertained from the Manager of Krishna Steel Industries that the driver Bishnu Charan had informed him that he would be returning via Keonjhar in truck No. ORK 3577. They went to the check gate at Panposh and came to know that no truck bearing registration No. ORK 3577 had passed through that check gate. Then they came to the check gate at Jharsuguda and on enquiry, came to learn that the truck bearing registration No. ORK 3577 had passed through that check gate during the night of July 14, 1982. P.W.58 and others returned to Bhanjanagar thinking that the deceased must have arrived at Sorada in the meantime, but the truck had not arrived and the deceased had not come. On August 1, 1982, Ramakanta Prusty (P.W.56) lodged information at the Bhanjanagar Police Station about the missing of the deceased and the materials as per Ext.121. On July 15, 1982, Karunakar Behera (P.W.50), Daitari Dehury (P.W.51) and Bhajamana Behera (P.W.52) saw the dead body of an unknown person lying in the jungle near a bush and lodged information about it at the Kishorenagar Police Station. On the basis of this report, the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (P.W.79) attached to that police station visited the spot during the absence of the Officer-in-charge and drew up an Unnatural Death First Information Report (Ex.90). Several injuries were noticed on the person of the dead body and marks of struggle on the ground were also noticed. The police officer found marks of tyres of a truck on the spot and patches of blood-stains on the ground. A leather chappal of the left leg of a person (M.O.IV) and a wooden Gutuka (M.O.II) stained with blood were lying on the spot. The Assistant Sub-Inspector made inquest over the dead body and sent it for post-mortem examination at the Handapa Hospital where the post-mortem was done and it came to light that the death of the deceased was homicidal in nature. Steps were taken to take the photographs of the deceased and the photographs were taken. In the course of investigation, stolen articles removed during the commission of dacoity belonging to the deceased were recovered from the possession of the appellants Bishnu Charan Muduli, Pramod Kumar Barik and Suru Karna. Clothes, with stains of blood were recovered from the possession of the appellant Amrutlal Banchor. During the course of investigation, the accused Pranabandhu Behera turned approver and was granted pardon. His confessional statement and his statement under S.306 of the Criminal P.C. were recorded. On the completion of investigation, a charge-sheet was placed and the appellants were prosecuted being charged as stated above.