KRUSHNA CHANDRA PAIL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was prosecuted under Section 436, Indian Penal Code, in sessions Trial No. 2/4c of 1965, in the court of the Assistant Sessions Judge. Cuttack and was convicted thereunder and sentenced to undergo Rule I, for four years. This conviction and sentence were upheld by the Additional Sessions Judge, cuttack, in Cr. Appeal No. 133-C of 1965. This petition is directed against the above order of conviction and sentence passed on appeal by the Additional sessions Judge, Cuttack.

(2.) THE charge against the petitioner was that he at about 2 A. M. in the night of 20th April 1964, at Jaipur set fire to the Gundi factory house of Jagabandhu Raul which was used as a place for custody of property, with the intention to cause destruction of the house and thereby caused a loss of about Rs. 20,000.

(3.) THE defence of the petitioner was a complete denial of his complicity in the offence. In his statement under Section 342, he stated that he did not stir out of his house that night as there was heavy rainfall. He further averred that this false case has been foisted on him due to his enmity with the prosecution witnesses, viz. , P. Ws. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7.