SWAPAN CH DEY Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant of the instant appeal was convicted for commission of an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, in default to suffer rigourous imprisonment for one year by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, South Tripura, Udaipur on 17-1-2004 in Case No. ST 32 (ST/U) of 2003. He was prosecuted for committing murder of one Smti Mina Rani Deb, wife of P.W. 6, Shri Rakhal Ch. Deb in between 9 a.m. of 26-5-2000 and 3 p. m. of 27-5-2000 A. D. at Bankumari within R.K. Pur Police Station. The deceased and the accused appellant were the inhabitants of the same locality namely, Chandrapur Colony No. 2 within R.K. Pur Police Station.

(2.) In the morning of 26-5-2000 at about 9 a.m. while deceased Mina Rani went to the tube well to fetch water along with other women of her locality, the accused appellant Swapan Chandra Dey appeared there and told her that her goat had gone to the forest. Getting the said information deceased Mina Rani then and there rushed towards the forest with a nylon rope in her hand in search of her goat. Accused appellant was also found to follow the deceased and since then the deceased was missing. As she was not traceable till the noon of that day, her husband (P.W. 6) and other villagers started searching her in the nearby jungle of Bankumari Reserve Forest and on the following day at about 3 p.m. her dead body was found hanging from a small sal tree in sitting position. Accordingly, police was informed over telephone and in response thereto, P.W. 8, Shri Saraj Bhattacharjee, a Sub-Inspector of R. K. Pur Police Station rushed to the spot and P.W. 6, Rakhal Ch. Deb, husband of the deceased lodged a written information to P.W. 8 who ultimately prepared the inquest report in respect of dead body of the deceased in presence of other witnesses and thereafter, sent the body of the deceased to Tripura Sundari District Hospital morgue for postmortem examination to ascertain the cause of death. The aforementioned information lodged by P.W. 6 was registered as a UD case under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'Cr.P.C.'). P.W. 3, Shri Kanu Lal Bhowmik, who was a medical officer of the aforesaid Hospital at the relevant time conducted the autopsy and submitted his report wherein he stated that the death of the deceased was caused due to asphyxia resulting from ante mortem strangulation which was homicidal in nature and there were sign of ante mortem sexual activities on the sex organ of the deceased. On receipt of the autopsy report, P.W. 9, Shri Kishore Kr. Das, a Sub-Inspector of Police, who was earlier one of the investigating officers in the aforementioned case, lodge first information report on 21-8-2002 with the Officer-in-Charge of R.K. Pur Police Station against unknown person and the FIR was registered as R.K. Pur P.S. Case No. 219 of 2002 under Sections 376 and 302 of IPC and P.W. 10, Shri Tapan Chakraborty was directed for holding investigation regarding the death of deceased Mina Rani Deb.

(3.) In course of investigation, P.W. 10 visited the place of occurrence, prepared the hand sketch map of the site from where the dead body of the deceased was recovered and examined the material witnesses. At the conclusion of the investigation, P.W. 10 submitted charge sheet under Sections 376, 302 and 201 of I.P.C. against the accused-appellant showing him as absconder. The accused-appellant was ultimately arrested and produced before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, South Tripura, Udaipur on 27-6-2003 and he was remanded to jail custody till 8-7-2003. Thereafter, the learned CJM committed the case for trial before the learned Sessions Judge, South Tripura, Udaipur the offence being exclusively triable by the Court of Session. On receipt of the case, the learned Sessions Judge transferred the same to the learned Addl. Sessions Judge Udaipur, South Tripura for disposal after proper trial who upon hearing the learned Counsel of the par ties as well as the accused-appellant framed charge under Section 302, I.P.C. against the accused-appellant to which he pleaded not guilty. It is to be named that on 8-7-2003, the learned Addl. Sessions Judge released the accused-appellant on bail and he was all along on bail till the date of delivery of the impugned judgment, i.e. on 17-1-2004.