STATE OF BIHAR Vs. YASODA KANU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Death Reference has been made to this Court under S.366(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for confirmation of the sentence passed against the accused Yashoda Kanu. He was put on trial in the court below on a charge under S.302 of the Indian Penal Code and the learned Additional Sessions Judge finding him guilty of the charge, convicted him thereunder and sentenced him to suffer death penalty. The accused was committed to the jail custody and we find that he presented an appeal as well against the judgment of conviction and the appeal has been registered as Criminal Appeal No.24 of 1987 and the Death Reference was registered as No.4 of 1986. Both the reference and the appeal have been heard together and this judgment will govern both the reference and the appeal.

(2.) The case against the accused arose on the statement of Amarendra Prasad, son of deceased Chchedi Sah. The case is as follows :

(3.) It was in the morning at about 6.15 A.M. on 11-4-1984 that Amarendra with his father Chchedi Sah was harvesting his wheat crop in village Dhanuati under police station Kataiya in the district of Gopalganj. The accused Yasoda Kanu suddenly came over and took Chchedi Sah to the southern side adjoining to the field of one Tulsi Teli. The accused abused him in filthy language, and took out a knife and pierced the same on the left side chest of Chchedi Sah and further gave a few multiple blows on the head and near the ear. Chchedi Sah dropped down dead. His son Amarendra and other villagers namely, Rama Shankar, Shivji, Bisambhar, Dharamnath, Rampati, Babu Lal Turha and Ramawatar Turha, who were also in their respective nearyby-fields, ran to the scene of occurrence. They all succeeded in catching hold of the accused Yashoda Kanu and they asked Amarendra to inform about the incident to the police. Amarendra lodged information and the police instituted a case and took up investigation.