SUBAL DEB Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these three appeals preferred by the five Appellants namely, Shri Subal Deb, Chandan Shil, Chandan Saha, Sajal Das and Shri Bimal Sarkar have arisen from the judgment dated 29-3-2003 passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Court No. 3, West Tripura, Agartala in Sessions Trial No. 94 (W.T./A) of 2000. By the aforesaid judgment the learned trial Court convicted all the five Appellants under Section 366 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') and sentenced the Appellant Shri Sajal Das to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/-, i/d to suffer S.I. for three years, the Appellants Subal Deb and Bimal Sarkar to undergo R.I. for five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, i/d to suffer S.I. for one year six months and the Appellants Chandan Shil and Chandal Saha to undergo R.I. for four years and to pay a fine of Rs. 3,000/- each, i/d to suffer S.I. for six months. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment of conviction and order of sentence, the Appellants preferred the aforesaid appeals respectively.

(2.) The prosecution case, in short, is that on 27-11-1999 while P.W. 4, Smt. Sankari Das alias Sankari Sarkar, aged 14/15 years, a student of Class VII of Charipara Higher Secondary School and minor daughter of Shri Anil Sarkar and Smt. Rekha Rani Das (P.W. 1) of vill-Panchamukh, Agartala was returning' home after appearing hi the school examination along with P.W. 5, Miss Soma Chakraborty, P.W. 6. Shri Dipal Choudhury and another Rina Baul and reached near Ramthakur Ashram at Panchamukh, suddenly the Appellants with a Maruti Van coming from her back side stopped on-brake condition near them and accused Sajal Das and Bimal Sarkar come out of the vehicle. Accused-Sajal caught Sankari and gagged her mouth with a towel and accused-Bimal had a Bhujali in his hand and they forcibly dragged Sankari inside the vehicle and taken her away to some unknown destination. The face of Sankari was covered and, therefore, she could not ascertain as to which direction the vehicle was going. When the aforesaid incident was reported to the mother of Sankari, her mother, the informant (P.W. 1) Smt. Rakhi Rani Das rushed to home and lodged FIR with the O/C, Amtali Police Station alleging, inter alia, that her minor daughter had been kidnapped and accordingly, police registered a case. The informant and others searched her here and there, but they could not trace out Sankari upto the evening of that day. At about 6/7 p.m. on the same day, a police patrolling party found a Maruti Van No. TR-01-B-0373 at Birchandra Manu under Manpathar Police Outpost of Santirbazar Police Station passing towards Santirbazar direction with high speed and the police party stopped the vehicle and found the victim girl along with the accused-Appellants and when police enquired about them, Sankari narrated the incident how and in what manner she was forcibly kidnapped by the accused-Appellants, with a view to marry her by the accused-Appellant Sajal against her will. Hearing the incident from Sankari, police detained all the accused-Appellants along with the vehicle and took them to Manpathar Police Outpost and had handed over them to the O/C of the said outpost. On such production, P.W. 10 Inspector Sajal Sharma examined the victim, then Sankari again narrated the incident to him. Thereafter, P.W. 10 detained all the five accused persons in the police outpost and also kept the victim minor girl (P.W. 4) in a separate room of the said outpost and reported the incident to the O/C Amtali Police Station through SP (DIB), South Tripura. P.W. 10 also detained the vehicle and on search he found a Bhojali, (dagger type sharp instrument), printed saree, blouse, petticoat, bra, vermilion, couch bangle etc. and seized the same by preparing seizure list in presence of witnesses. O/C, Amtali P.S. on receipt of the information from the O/C, Manpathar O.P. reported the recovery of P.W. 4 to her mother, the informant (P.W. l), but since it was night and the road was not safe, for extremist problem, the informant could not go to Manpathar O.P. on that night and on the following morning she along with her neighbours went to Manpathar O.P. and O/C, Manpathar O.P. after getting the information of institution of a case in the Amtali P.S. forwarded the victim girl and all the accused persons to the Court of learned SDJM, Belonia, South Tripura and made a prayer for handing over the victim girl to her mother, the informant and accordingly, the victim, girl (P.W. 4) was handed over to her mother (P.W. 1) and her mother brought her back home and produced her before the O/C, Amtali P.S. who seized the school uniform and badge etc. of the victim. The case was ultimately handed over to P.W. 13, SI Aktar Hossain for investigation. I.O. of the case made prayer before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, West Tripura, Agartala for issuing custody warrant in the name of the accused persons and for production of the accused persons before the Court of learned CJM, West Tripura, Agartala and such prayer was allowed and the accused persons were remanded by the learned SDJM, Belonia in jail custody at Belonia and subsequently as per order of the learned CJM, West Tripura all the five accused persons were produced before the learned CJM, West Tripura and were remanded to custody. It is the further case of the prosecution that the accused persons with a previous meeting of mind and pre-arranged plan kidnapped the minor girl of P.W. 1 with a view that accused Sajal would marry her forcibly against her will and against the consent of her legal guardian. As all the accused persons shared the common intention, they committed offence punishable under Section 366 of the IPC.

(3.) On completion of investigation police filed charge-sheet against the accused persons and the case being exclusively triable by the Court of Session, the learned Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Agartala committed the case to the learned Sessions Judge, West Tripura. Agartala who ultimately transferred the case to the Court of learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Court No. 3, West Tripura, Agartala for trial and accordingly, the learned Addl. Sessions Judge framed charges against the accused-Appellants under Section 366 read with Section 34, IPC to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried while the defence case was of total denial.