STATE OF BIHAR Vs. ANIL YADAV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Death Reference No. 1 of 1997 (R) and Cr Appeal No. 83 of 1997 (R), arising out of common judgment and order of conviction dated 4.4.1997 in S.T. No. 463 of 1994 passed by Sri B.N.P. Singh, Sessions Judge, Palamu at Daltonganj, have been heard together and are to be governed by this common judgment.

(2.) Accused -Anil Yadav and Sanjay Yadav were tried and convicted under Sections 342, 323, 376, 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code by the Sessions Court on the charge that on 5.3.1994 they had wrongfully confined Uspati Devi and Savita Devi, the deceased, and had assaulted Dukhan Mahto (P.W. 2), when he had protested to it and that they raped and eventually murdered victims Uspati Devi and Savita Devi and for causing disappearance of the evidence of double murder by throwing their dead bodies into a well. Both the accused have been sentenced to death under Section 302 I.P.C. Further they have been sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for seven years, one year and six months under Sections 376, 342 and 323 I.P.C. respectively. It appears that the learned Sessions Judge has passed no separate sentence under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code against them perhaps because they have been sentenced to death under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Learned Sessions Judge made a reference to this Court for confirmation of the death sentence awarded to them under Section 366(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which gave rise to Death Reference No. 1 of 1997 (R). Criminal Appeal No. 83 of 1997 (R) is by co -accused (Ramjiwan Yadav and Vishwanath Yadav alias Bishwanath Yadav) against their convictions under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code and sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life and seven years respectively, thereunder. Both the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

(3.) The prosecution case, briefly stated, as made out in the fardbeyan (Exhibit 3), in as under: