GULI BEHERA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant in Jail Criminal Appeal No. 13 of 2002 Guli Behera and the appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 119 of 2002 Gariba @ Girisha Naik and Bana Palai @ Banabasi Polai faced trial in the Court of learned Asst. Sessions Judge, Bhanjanagar in S.C. No. 4 of 1997 (S.C. 25/97 GDC) for offences punishable under sections 364/34, 307/34, 323/34, 506-II/34, 387/34 of the Indian Penal Code read with section 25(1-A) of the Arms Act.

(2.) The prosecution case, in short, is that on 21.01.1996 some school students along with their parents and school teachers of Arabinda Sikhyaniketen of Gobara had gone to Daha Irrigation Project for a picnic. During such picnic, the students and some parents and some teachers were staying in the irrigation I.B. and taking tiffin. Some other parents including the informant Dr. Panu Naik (P.W.14) had been to a nearby village to arrange chicken for the dinner. In their absence, while the children were loitering in front of the said I.B., some persons suddenly came there in motor cycles and forcibly took away Laxmikanta Naik (P.W.19), son of the informant after assaulting him. While those persons were taking away P.W.19 in a motor cycle, the informant and other parents found them on the way while they were returning from a nearby village after purchase of chicken. When the informant protested the action of those culprits, they assaulted the informant by fist blows and pointed a revolver on his head and directed him to pay a sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- (rupees one lakh only) by the next day at 10.30 a.m. in order to get back his son. Thereafter, finding no other way, the informant and other parents came back to the picnic site and P.W.19 was taken away by the culprits towards Indragada. Out of those culprits, the informant could able to identify one as Kadar Naik of village Basudevpur. When the picnic party returned back to Gobara, on the way the informant lodged a written report in writing at Bhanjanagar police station regarding the occurrence.

(3.) Basing upon such first informant report, Bhanjanagar P.S. Case No. 17 of 1996 was registered on 21.01.1996 under sections 364/307/323/506/387/34 of the Indian Penal Code read with section 25(a) of the Arms Act. P.W.20 Sachidananda Mohapatra, Inspector in charge of Bhanjanagar police station took up investigation of the case. During course of investigation, the I.O. examined the informant, visited the spot, examined some witnesses and came to know that the informant had already paid Rs. 65,000/- (rupees sixty five thousand only) to the culprits and accordingly, his son Laxmikanta (P.W.19) was released. During further investigation, the I.O. could able to seize some of the loot amount which the culprits had paid to different persons of village Baibeli in order to purchase rations. The I.O. recovered a motor cycle from Banabasi Polai which was subsequently detected to be a stolen motor cycle with reference to Baliguda P.S. Case No. 3 of 1996 under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code. The appellant Gariba Naik and co-accused Kalu Naik were arrested on 31.01.1996 and the I.O. also arrested appellant Banabasi Palei and from appellant Gariba Naik, he recovered one gun and some cash. The gun was sent for ballistic expert examination and after obtaining the report and sanction order of the District Magistrate, Ganjam, charge sheet was submitted against the appellants and co-accused Kalu Naik, Rabindra Naik, Md. Sarif, Raju Sahu, Dillip Naik, Kedar Naik and Tuku Polai.