CHAGIR MIA Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By judgment and order, dated 24.03.2005, passed, in Sessions Trial No. 55 (W/A) 2003, the accused-appellants stand convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- each and in default of payment of fine, suffer rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, as unfolded at the trial, may, in brief, be described thus: There was a difference of opinion with regard to theft of some bags of cement, which allegedly took place at the construction site of Dipu, Amal and Uttam, who were friends and contractors, and they suspected that accused Sankar and Ranjit might be involved in the said theft. On 27.10.2001, Dipu and Uttam went to heir site, which was near the factory of accused Raimohan Sarkar, and they met here accused Parimal, Raimohan Sarkar, Ranjit and Himangshu.. An altercation took place between the two groups on the issue of theft of cement and the accused threatened Uttam and Dipu, whereupon Dipu and Uttam went to the house of Amal and informed him as to what had happened. Till about 7 P.M., all the three friends remained at Amal's house and, then, they dame to the tea-stall of one Sishu Biswas at Bankumari Chowmuhani and when, sitting at the said tea-stall, at about 8:00 p.m., they were discussing the matter, acused Sahadeb came there in an auto- rickshaw and started instigating the other accused, namely, Sagir Miah, Latu Miah, Sajal Sarkar, Parimal Sarkar, Raimohan Sarkar, Sankar Sarkar, Ajit Sarkar, Himangshu and others to do something. On noticing that the situation might become dangerous for them, Dipu, accompanied by Amal and Uttam, started from the said tea-stall for their respective houses. As Dipu and Amal wanted to, first, escort Uttam to his home, they proceeded towards Uttam's house; but when they reached near Raimohan Sarkar's factory, the present appellants, accompanied by the accused persons, came running and some of them were raising cries like 'catch, catch'. On hearing the shouts, Amal, Uttam and Dipu started running to save their lives; but the accused chased Amal, Uttam and Dipu and caught hold of, first, Amal, whereupon Amal was assaulted by accused Sagir Miah, Ranjit, Kanu and Ajit with iron rods and lathis. Having been seriously injured, Amal fell down on the ground. From the place, where Amal had so fallen, when Uttam and Dipu had covered barely a distance of 20 metres, accused Parimal, Raimohan Sarkar, Sankar Sarkar and Latu Miah started assaulting Uttam with iron rods and lathis and killed him on the spot. While Uttam was being so assaulted, the remaining accused chased Dipu; but Dipu, somehow, managed to hide himself behind the bushes, which were standing at a distance of about 20 yards from the place, where Uttam had been assaulted and killed. The bushes, so standing there, covered a distance of about one-and -a-half kilometres. The assailants got together and conducted a search to trace out Dipu and they continued their search till about 11:00 p.m. In the meanwhile, on being informed that some incident had taken place at Bankumari Chowmuhani, Amal's brother, Bidur Lodh, came alongwith some others, to Bankumari Chowmuhani and found dead bodies of Amal and Uttam lying there. On receiving information about the occurrence, police arrived at 9:20 p.m., at the place of occurrence. The police held inquest over the said dead bodies and prepared a sketch-map. On the arrival of the police, at the place of occurrence, Bidur Lodh lodged a written Ejahar with the Police. Based on this Ejahar and treating the same as the First Information Report, East Agartala P.S. Case No. 193/2001 under Section 302/34 IPC was registered and, on completion of investigation, police laid charge-sheet against all the accused under Section 302/34 IPC.

(3.) To the charges framed against them under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, at the trial, all the accused aforementioned pleaded not guilty.