MANNU NEHERA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner with twenty-three co-accused persons stood trial in the Court of Session being charged under Ss. 147, 337, 323 and 436 read with S. 149 of the Penal Code (for short, the 'Code') and under S. 7(d) of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955. The accused persons, it was alleged, set fire to the houses of Khadika Bewa and Kashi Naik in the Harijan Bustee and pelted stones and assaulted some of the Harijan people by being armed on Mar. 24, 1980. The plea of the petitioner and the co-accused persons was one of denial and false implication. On a consideration of the evidence of thirteen witnesses examined for the prosecution and the other materials placed before the trial court, the Court held that the charge of arson against the present petitioner had been established He was convicted under S. 436 of the Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and to pay fine, of Rs. 151, - and in default of payment thereof to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months. He was also convicted under S. 337 read with S. 149 of the Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months. Six other co-accused persons were convicted under S. 337 read with S. 149 of the Code and each of them was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months. The trial court acquitted the rest of the accused persons of all the charges. On appeal, the order of conviction under S. 436 of the Code and the sentences passed against the petitioner thereunder were maintained. But the order of conviction and the sentences passed against the petitioner and the other convicted person under S. 337 read with S. 149 of the Code were set aside.

(2.) It has been urged on behalf of the petitioner that the evidence of P. Ws. 1 and 2 was not worthy of credence and disinterested and independent persons had not been examined. Attention of this Court has also been invited to some discrepancies appearing in the evidence of P. Ws. 1 and

(3.) Both the trial and appellate courts have, on an elaborate discussion of the evidence on record, concurrently found that it was the petitioner who had set fire to the houses of Khadika Bewa and Kashi Naik by means of a burning bicycle tire which had resulted in the fire spreading over a number of other houses in the Harijan locality. Reliance has been placed by the two courts mainly on the evidence of P. Ws. 1 and 2 coupled with some corroborative evidence including the seizure of burnt articles on the spot. It is not disputed at the Bar that a number of houses belonging to the harijans including those of Khadika Bewa and Kashi Naik had caught fire. The question is as to whether the petitioner was the author of arson.