KABITA DAS Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition was registered on the basis of a letter addressed by the petitioner Kabita Das, wife of late bhaguni Das @ Bhagirathi Das of village izapur, District-Jajpur in the State of Orissa bringing to the notice of this Court that in the night of 28-3-2007 at about 10. 30 P. M. at village Izapur, accused Kedar Narayan parlda and nineteen others including his sons attacked her husband late Bhagirathi das, most heinously in a group to take political revenge and killed him. On the basis of the FIR lodged to that effect, Mangalpur p. S. Case No. 28 of 2007 was registered and on that basis G. R. Case No. 468 of 2007 has been registered in the Court of the S. D. J. M. , Jaipur.

(2.) IN her written complaint presented before this Court in person, the petitioner has stated that Kedar Narayan Parida is the main accused in the murder case and his sons are very influential persons of the ruling party. Although four months have elapsed, only three persons, out of nineteen accused persons in the murder case have been arrested and forwarded to the Court. She further alleged that arrest of those three persons and their forwarding to Court has been done on account of a secret understanding between the police and the Government authorities, in order to create an eye wash and in the meanwhile Kedar narayan Parida and his sons are moving freely in the nearby areas with the knowledge of the police, but the police is not taking any step for arresting them. In the said complaint she further alleged that the accused persons have often visited her village and threatened to kill the witnesses to the incident if they say anything in their statement recorded by the Investigating Officer (in short I. O. ). Therefore, she along with her brother-in-law have also intimated the superintendent of Police, Jajpur and D. G. of Police, Orissa, complaining that no action has yet been taken on her complaint and no protection has been given to her family. The petitioner's grievance in her application addressed to this Court also contains a prayer for a direction to the police authorities to apprehend the main accused Kedar narayan Parida and his sons and to take appropriate steps against them in accordance with law.

(3.) THIS written application made by the petitioner Kabita Das was registered as Writ petition (C) 12626 of 2007 and the order dated 4-10-2007 passed in that case runs as follows :-On 27-7-2007 a petition was presented before us by one Kabita Das claiming to be the widow of deceased Bhagirathi Das of village Ijapur, p. S. Mangalpur, District Jajpur alleging improper investigation into the murder of her husband Bhagirathi Das. A case has been registered being Mangalpur p. S. Case No. 28 dated 29-3-2007 under sections 147/148/341/326/307/302/506/ 149, IPC. Her complaint basically is that in the said case there are 19 accused persons. Allegations in the F. I. R. have been made against those 19 accused persons, namely, kedar Narayan Parida, Jyoti Ranjan Parida, sakti Ranjan Parida, Bibeka Ranjan Parida, darpanarayan Parida, Pranaya Kumar Ray, jugal Kishore Ray, Kuna Ray, Ajay Kumar ray, Asis Kumar Ray, Nityananda Sahoo, tutu Sahoo, Hrusikesa Sahoo, Kartika sahoo, Sudhanindhi Sahoo, Sk. Hanif, santosh Sahoo, Prasanta Jena and Jitendra parida. But out of those 19 persons only 4 persons have been charge sheeted and those 4 persons are stated to be Ajaya Kumar Ray @ Kunja, Jugal Kishore Ray, Nityananda sahu and Kartika @ Jyotiranjari Sahoo. Charge-sheet has not been filed against the remaining 15 accused persons though direction has been given to file charge-sheet against 3 more persons, namely, Sudhanidhi sahoo @ Mangua, Asis Kumar Ray and pranaya Kumar Ray. So far as other remaining 12 accused persons are concerned, no charge-sheet has been directed to be filed against them. After the present petition was filed by kabita Das, which was registered as PIL No. 43 of 2007, this Court directed Mr. P. K. Khuntia, learned Additional Government advocate to take instructions in the matter, since the widow of the deceased was not in a position to explain properly the facts and circumstances of the case. Let the said PIL No. 43 of 2007 be registered as a writ petition. On our request Mr. P. K. Khuntia, learned additional Government Advocate has filed before us detailed instruction received from the Superintendent of Police, Jajpur. We find that the case was under the supervision of shri N. Swain, OPS (I), Additional Superintendent of Police, Jajpur, who after examining the witnesses named in the fir concluded that the case was true against all the 19 accused persons. Subsequently, the Investigating Officer only arrested three of them. It appears from the said report that the lie detector test in respect of the witnesses was done and on such evidence, evaluation of Polygram revealed no deceptive responses in respect of the witnesses and the evidence of witnesses prima facie proves about presence of all the 19 persons who were attacking the deceased with different types of weapons. But, thereafter the inspector General of Police, CR, Cuttack intervened and after his intervention he found the case to be true only against 7 persons and indicated that the involvement of other 12 accused persons named in the FIR needs thorough investigation. Therefore, it appears that at the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, CR, Cuttack filing of charge sheet against other 12 accused persons has been deferred. Office is directed to make English translation of the petition dated 27-7-2007 filed by Kabita Das by tomorrow. The matter will appear in the list on Monday (8-10-2007 ). The Inspector General of police, CR, Cuttack is directed to appear before this Court on 8-10-2007 at 10. 30 a. m. to give his explanation why did he intervene in the matter and virtually directed for non-filing of charge sheet against the remaining 12 accused persons. Let a copy of this order be given to Mr. P. K. Khuntia. Addl. Government Advocate, who will inform the Inspector General of police, CR, Cuttack accordingly. The original report of the Superintendent of Police, Jajpur dated 27-9-2007 and the copy of the letter of Circle Inspector of Police, Jajpur (I. O.) to the Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Jajpur are kept on the record and they form part of this PIL. " thereafter Mr. Debasis Panda, learned advocate was appointed as amicus curiae on behalf of the petitioner-Kabita Das.