SURESH DUTT Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The learned Juvenile Court convicted the revisionist-petitioner for offences under Sections 302 and 364, I.P.C. on 5/09/1988 and referred the matter to the State Government u/S. 22(i) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 (in short "the Act"hereinafter). On receipt of the letter dated 24/03/1989 from the State Government, the Juvenile Court ordered on 19/06/1989 to detain the petitioner for a period of 5 years in Juvenile Reformatory, Udaipur attached to the Central Jail Udaipur.

(2.) As per finding of the Juvenile Court, the accused was of 15 years, 3 months and 10 days of age on the date of occurrence i.e. 4-12-1981. As per certificate of School, the date of birth of the revisionist-petitioner was 24-8-1966 and the appeal u/S. 37 of the Act was preferred before the Court of Sessions on 30/05/1989 against the above order, who transferred the same to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Jodhpur (Special Judge, E.C. Act), which was received in the later Court on 22-2-1990. On 12/05/1992, the learned Additional Sessions Judge reduced the duration of detention from 5 years to 3 years in Judicial Reformatory, Udaipur u/S. 22(i) of the Act. Against this judgment and appeal by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, this revision has been filed on 17/05/1992 u/S. 38 of the Act.

(3.) The facts giving rise to the present case are that on an information by Shyamlal, a F.I.R. was registered against the revisionist-petitioner for the alleged murder of Vinod Kumar on 4-12-1981, who had gone with him and was not seen alive thereafter. After usual investigation, challan was submitted against the accused on 11-1-1982. The learned Juvenile Court relying on the evidence of the last seen and recovery of the dead body of the deceased at the instance of the accused, convicted the revisionist-petitioner as aforesaid. The learned Juvenile Court also relied on the evidence of Identification Parade of the articles held during investigation by the then Munsif and Judicial Magistrate P.W. 16 Mr. Prasant Kumar, P.W. 12 Dr. P. D. Purohit, who conducted the post-mortem of the deceased found that the cause of the death was strangulation with the help of cord. According to the prosecution, the deceased was burnt after murder.