PRAMILA PANDA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since both the parties are ready, we take up for hearing. Heard argument and the judgment is as follows:

(2.) The inhuman and shocking death of a child aged about 8 years and prosecution of the Appellant as the author of that crime was the subject matter of dispute in T.R. Case No. 48 of 1999 of the Court of Learned Special Judge, Puri. On conclusion of the Trial, Learned Special Judge found the Appellant guilty of the offence under Ss. 302/201 I.P.C. and sentenced him to imprisonment for life and rigorous imprisonment for five years respectively for the aforesaid two offences with a direction to run the sentences concurrently.

(3.) The background fact available from the lower Court record is that Mathura Dalei (P.W.12) and Janha Dalei (P.W.11) are husband and wife. They are blessed with two sons and deceased Rajib Dalei aged about eight years was the eldest among the two. Appellant was working as a Home Guard and she had also a son from her divorced/abandoned husband. She developed intimacy with P.W. 12, which became matter of concern for P.W. 11 to remain separate from P.W. 12. Ultimately, P.W. 12 remained outside serving as a cook in an Opera party and was occasionally visiting his house. P.W. 11 carried on traditional business of selling of fish at Badasankha in Puri town. On 15.12.1998, P.W. 12 had come to the house and in the evening went to move inside the township. He took the deceased with him. In the night when the father and son returned, the deceased stated to P.W. 11 that P.W. 12 mixed with (talked with) the Appellant. Because of that, there was quarrel between P. Ws.11 and 12 and therefore P.W. 12 left the house. On 16.12.1998 in afternoon when P.W. 11 had gone to shop along with the deceased at about evening time he found the son untraceable. She searched for him and could know from P.W. 10 that he had seen deceased with the accused. Therefore, on the following day morning, P.W. 11 went to place of stay of the accused and thereafter to various places, so as to trace the accused and the deceased. When she could not locate the accused and the deceased, she went and reported the matter to her husband at his place of stay and after returning from that place, she heard rumour about discovery of a dead body at the sea beach and found that dead body was of her son. Other part of the prosecution story is that in the afternoon and in the evening of 16.12.1998, the accused and the deceased were found moving together and they spent the night in the house under occupation of the accused in the premises of P.W. 6, the land lady and that in the morning of 17.12.1998 the accused went away from the room together with the deceased. The next evidence which could be collected by the investigating agency is that P. Ws.1, 2 and 3, who had usually gone to the Casurina forest locality at the sea beach to attend to call of nature, saw the deceased sitting with the accused and they also came after rumour of discovery of dead body of a boy and found that to be the dead body of the boy whom they had seen with the accused. After inquest, post -mortem examination was conducted over the dead body of the deceased by Dr. Sarbaswar Acharya, P.W. 15 and he opined that there were presence of injuries on the body of the deceased indicating about physical violence in course of causing manual suffocation and also burying the boy in the sand when he was alive. The dead body could be discovered by some persons moving on the sea beach because of exposure a part of the body. At first an U.D. Case was registered and thereafter a case under Ss. 302/201 was registered on the F.I.R lodged by P.W. 11. The accused being not a member of scheduled caste and the deceased being of scheduled caste, the accused -Appellant was also charged under Sec. 3(2) (v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989, but ultimately in the Trial Court that charge was dropped followed by an order of acquittal.