(1.) Death Reference No. 9/07 and Criminal Appeal No. 394 of 2007 arise out of the judgment and order passed by the Learned ad hoc Addl. Sessions Judge, F.T C., Athagarh in ST No. 228 of 2006 convicting the Appellant for commission of offence of murder of the deceased Sabita under Sec. 302 I.P.C. and for commission of offence of causing the disappearance of the deceased's dead body in order to save himself from legal punishment under Sec. 201 Indian Penal Code. The Appellant has been sentenced to death under Sec. 302 I.P.C. whereas no separate sentence has been awarded under Sec. 201 I.P.C.
(2.) P.W.1, the informant, is the deceased's father, P.W.2 is the deceased's mother and PW5 is P.W.1's brother. P.W.8 happens to be deceased's sister in -law. Prosecution case is that the Appellant and the deceased of village Sundara belonging to different castes were in love. Though the Appellant and the deceased wanted to marry, the deceased's parents and relations raised objection to their marriage. Out of their relationship, the deceased had conceived and was pregnant during the period of occurrence. It is alleged that a couple of days prior to the deceased's death, the Appellant during night time clandestinely took the deceased away from her house and P.W.6 as well as P.W.9 chanced upon the deceased and the applicant proceeding towards Dhobaninala. P.W.1 is stated to have lodged a written report regarding the missing of the deceased at Baramba P.S. on 13.01.2006. It is alleged that the Appellant killed the deceased by strangulation with a scarf when the deceased refused his proposal to get her pregnancy aborted and concealed the dead body in the nearby nala. Deceased's dead body was detected inside Baunsapal canal of Dhobaninala on 16.01.2006 in the night upon which P.W.1, the informant, lodged written F.I.R. Ext. 1 before P.W.1 0, a Junior S.I. of Police who was the Second Officer of Baramba PS.P.W.10 registered the case and took up investigation. In course of investigation P.W.10, inter alia, got the dead body of the deceased subjected to post mortem examination by P.W.3 Dr. Manas Ranjan Pani who found that the deceased had died due to asphyxia caused by strangulation with a scarf used as the ligature found to have been tied around her neck. The Appellant surrendered in the Court of J.M.F.C., Baramba upon which he was taken on police remand. While in custody, the Appellant disclosed to have concealed and led P.W.10 as well as P. Ws. 6 & 7 to the recovery of the deceased's chappals MOS XIX and XX as well as his own blood stained banner MO -XXI near the place of occurrence which articles were seized under seizure lists Exts. 10/1 and 9/1 respectively. Seized articles, being forwarded by P.W.10, were subjected to chemical examination. On completion of investigation chargesheet under Ss. 302/201 I.P. C. was submitted against the Appellant.
(3.) Facing the charges framed under Ss. 302 and 201 I.P.C., the Appellant took the plea of denial. Also the further plea of the Appellant was that he was away from his village during the period of occurrence. The Appellant also appears to have taken a plea that as the deceased was pregnant and insisted upon getting married to the Appellant, her parents killed the deceased in order to save family honour.