CHANDRAI MAJHI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant stood charged under S. 302 of the Penal Code (for short 'the Code') with having committed the murder of Salma Bewa (hereinafter described as 'the deceased') on July 9,1980, at Kasijharan in the district of Mayurbhanj. The case of the prosecution was that while the dead body of the child Dulari, the sister's daughter of the appellant, was being taken to the cremation ground by the villagers including P.Ws. 2 to 4, the appellant, suspecting that Salma had killed the child by playing witchcraft, dealt blows by means of an axe (M.O.I) on her head and neck which resulted into her death. The appellant left M.O.I, on the spot and went away. On the first information report being lodged by P.W. 5, investigation was taken up and on its completion, a charge-sheet was placed and the appellant was prosecuted. The appellant's plea was one of denial and false implication.

(2.) Of the seven witnesses examined for the prosecution, P.Ws. 2 to 4 had figured as the witnesses to the occurrence. The trial court did not accept the evidence of P.W. 2 as he had not, in terms, stated before the Magistrate under S. 164 of the Criminal P.C. that he had seen the actual assault. The trial court has accepted the evidence of P.Ws. 3 and 4 and the other circumstances appearing in the evidence against the appellant and has convicted him under S. 302 of the Code and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life.

(3.) While Mr. Naidu has attacked the evidence of P.Ws. 3 and 4 as not acceptable, Mr. Ray, the learned Additional Government Advocate, has submitted that there was no reason to discard their evidence and it had rightly been relied upon by the learned trial Judge which had found assurance from the medical evidence and the seizure of M.O.I on the spot which, on chemical and serological test, contained human blood.