SANTOSH K CHAKRABARTY Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant stood charged under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, 'the Code), in the Court of Mr. C.P. Panda, Additional Sessions Judge, Rourkela, with having committed the murder of Manik Das, along with the absconding co -accused Rabin Das by means of a sharp cutting weapon during the night of November 24, 1982, near the R.C. Mission Church at Rourkela. It was alleged by the prosecution that having come with Manik Das (to be referred to hereinafter as 'the deceased') from Calcutta when the latter came with Rs. 6,000/ - in search of service at Rourkela and after staying in the Blue Star Hotel of which Ram Kripal Singh (P. W. 19) was the Manager, in the name of A. K. Sarkar, where also the deceased stayed in the name of G. Sengupta, the appellant with his companion Rabin Das and the deceased left in a tempo' with Gopal Naik (P. W. 9), Dillip Singh Burma (P. W. 10) and Ajay Singh Burma (P. W. 14) during the fateful night and on the way, the 'tempo' was stopped for fuel when the appellant, the co -accused and the deceased left that place and the deceased was done to death. The murder was said to be for gain. The appellant and his companion returned to the place where the 'tempo' had been halted, but not the deceased and for this, suspicion grew in the mind of the driver (P. W. 10) and he straight drove it to the Tangerpali Police Station where the co -accused Rabin escaped. The Assistant Sub -Inspector of Police (P. W. 13), on the report of P. Ws. 10 and 14 regarding the suspicion entertained by them against the appellant and his companion, made a Station Diary Entry (Ex. 9) and produced the appellant before the Assistant Sub -Inspector of the Jalda Police out -post (P. W. 7) to which area the case related, who drew up the first information report (Ex. 4), sent it to the concerned Raghunathpali Police Station for registration of a case and took up the preliminary investigation which was continued and completed by the Officer -in -charge of the Police Station (P. W. 20).

(2.) IN the course of investigation, P. W. 7 had visited the spot and had sent the deceased in an injured and unconscious state for medical treatment. The deceased succumbed to the injuries sustained by him. P. W. 20 had seized from the person of the appellant a shirt (M. O. VI), a full pant (M. O. VII), a banian (M. O. VIII), a sweater (M. O. IX) and a half -pant (M. O. X) and had collected his nail scarppings as these clothes and the nails of the appellant had suspected stains of blood. On the completion of investigation, a charge -sheet was placed showing the co -accused to be an absconder and the appellant was prosecuted.

(3.) A disquieting feature noticed by this Court is that the reports of the Chemical Examiner and Serologist in respect of the clothes which contained human blood and the nail scrappings of the appellant which contained blood had not been admitted in evidence and the prosecution had taken no steps in this regard. Consequently, no question had been put to the appellant with regard to the finding of the Chemical Examiner and Serologist.