SHYAMAL PAUL Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal from jail under Sec. 383, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ['CrPC' or 'the Code', for short] is preferred against a Judgment and Order dt. 22/12/2017 passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Udalguri in Sessions Case no. 25[D-U] of 2012. By the Judgment and Order dtd. 22/12/2017, the accused-appellant has been convicted for committing the offence of uxoricide and on finding him guilty for the offence of murder, the accused-appellant has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprison-ment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000.00, in default of payment of fine, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for another three months. The accused-appellant has also been found guilty for the offence under Sec. 201, Indian Penal Code [IPC] and for the offence under Sec. 201, IPC, he has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years. It has been ordered that the sentences are to run concurrently.

(2.) The case, Sessions Case no. 25[D-U] of 2012 arose out of Orang Police Station Case no. 55 of 2011 and corresponding G.R. Case no. 392 of 2011. One Bibhas Chandra Paul, as the informant, lodged a First Information Report [FIR] before the Officer In-Charge, Orang Police Station on 4/11/2011 regarding missing of his sister, Uma Paul and suspecting involvement of three persons viz. [i] Shyamal Paul, that is, the present accused-appellant [A-1]; [ii] Sumitra Paul [A-2]; and [iii] Sudhir Paul [A-3] in the suspected murder of the informant's sister. It was mentioned that the accused persons, named in the FIR, had confessed that they had killed the sister of the informant, Uma Paul and thereafter, buried the deadbody inside a jungle near Orang tea estate. The informant had inter alia mentioned that the marriage between his sister, Uma Paul and the present accused-appellant, Shyamal Paul [A-1] was solemnized about 12 years earlier. As no issue was born out of the said wedlock, the accused-appellant used to torture Uma Paul physically and mentally and there was also threat from the accused-appellant that she would be killed. The informant had also alleged that the accused-appellant had entered into another marital relationship and after the second marriage, both the accused-appellant and his second wife, Sumitra Paul [A-2] started torturing Uma Paul with more intensity. The informant had also alleged that on 24/10/2011, the accused persons, A-1 and A-2 with the assistance of the third accused person, A-3 took Uma Paul to Orang on the false pretext of providing medical treatment to her and it was thereafter, Uma Paul had gone missing.

(3.) On receipt of the FIR, the Officer In-Charge, Orang Police Station registered the same as Orang Police Station Case no. 55/2011 for the offences under Sec. 120B/302/201/34, IPC.