GANJIA PATRA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE accused, Appellant herein, has been held guilty and convicted under Section 302, I.P.C. for committing murder of Mediri singh Patra (hereinafter referred to as 'deceased') by means of an axe and consequently sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. Against the said order of conviction and sentence, he has preferred the present appeal.

(2.) SHORTLY stated, the prosecution case is that on 30.11.1990 while the deceased and Sahadeva Patra, P.W.,3 were returning after morning ablutions, the accused, who was lying in wait near a thorny bush suddenly emerged with an axe and inflicted a blow on the neck of the deceased. P.W. 3 when entreated the accused, he chased him to assault. So, out of fear P.w. 3 rushed to the village and informed Ramsing Patra, P.W. 1 - brother of the deceased, hearing which he along with some villagers came to the spot and finding the deceased struggling for life with bleeding injuries, he arranged a cot to remove his to hospital, but in the meanwhile he succumbed to the injuries. On the very day of incident, P.W. 1 reported the matter to O.I.C. of Tumudibandh Police Station (P.W. 10) who reduced the same into writing, treated the same as FIR and proceeded with the investigation and on close thereof placed the charge -sheet against the Appellant to stand his trial under Section 302, I.P.C.

(3.) THE prosecution in its endeavour to bring home the charge examined ten witnesses, of them, P.W. 3 was eye witness to the occurrence and P.W. 4 was a witness to extra judicial confession made by the accused. The learned trial Court mainly relying upon the evidence of these two witnesses accepted the prosecution case and held that it was the accused who inflicted the fatal blows with a lethal weapon to the deceased and caused his death.