ATUL SAIKIA Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 18.2.1998 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, North Lakhimpur in Sessions Case No. 41(NL) 96 convicting the accused/appellant under Section 304 Part-I of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to undergo R.I. for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500, in default, to undergo further R.I. for one month.

(2.) The prosecution case, in short, is that one Biren Saikia (PW 1) had lodged a F.I.R. on 21.6.1995 at about 1.00 P.M. with the Dolohat Police Outpost under North Lakhimpur Police Station to the effect that at about 11 A.M. of the same day his elder brother, Tankeswar Saikia, was killed by another brother of the first informant, i.e., the accused by inflicting blows with a spade and an axe. On receipt of the F.I.R. police registered a case under Section 302, I.P.C. and took up investigation thereof. In the course of the investigation police visited the place of occurrence and recovered the' dead body of the deceased from the place of occurrence. Inquest was held and the dead body was sent for post mortem examination. From the place of occurrence the police had arrested the accused/appellant. According to the prosecution, the accused having volunteered to make a confessional statement he was forwarded to the Court on the next day, i.e., 22.6.1995 where after his confessional statement under Section 164, Cr.P.C. (Ext-4) was recorded by PW 5. Furthermore, in the cOurse of the investigation the statements of a large number of persons who were examined were recorded. At the conclusion of the investigation charge-sheet was submitted against the accused/appellant under Section 302, I.P.C. The case being exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions was committed for trial to the Court of the learned Sessions Judge, North Lakhimpur. In the trial Court charge under Section 302, I.P.C. was framed against the accused/appellant to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. In the course of the trial four witnesses were examined on behalf of the prosecution. Two witnesses were examined as court-witnesses. The statement of the accused/appellant was recorded under Section 313, Cr.P.C. Thereafter, by the impugned judgment and order dated 18.2.1998 the accused/appellant having been convicted and sentenced as aforesaid, aggrieved, the instant appeal has been filed.

(3.) The evidence adduced in support of the prosecution case may be briefly noticed at this stage. PW 1, Biren Saikia, the first informant, is the brother of the deceased as well as the accused. Though he has proved the FIR (Ext. 1) and his signature thereon as Ext. 1(1), in the course of his deposition he has stated that the F.I.R. was written by one Gobin Saikia who, however, did not read out the contents to him. In his deposition PW 1 did not fully support the prosecution case inasmuch as he has stated that at the relevant point of time he was working in his field and only being informed about some commotion in his house he returned home and found his elder brother, the deceased, lying in the courtyard. PW 1 has, however, deposed that the inmates of the house informed him that a fight had taken place between the accused and the deceased. PWs 2 and 3 who are relations of the accused and the deceased had deposed in a more or less similar way.