STATE OF JHARKHAND Vs. BALDEO LAKRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY Court. Death Reference No. 1 of 2007 under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure referred by the Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh and Cr. Appeal No. 455 of 2007 preferred by the appellants Baldeo Lakra and Chando Devi arise from the impugned judgment and order dated 16.3.2007 and 17.3.2007 respectively passed in Sessions Trial No. 276 of 1996 by Sri Amitabh Kumar, Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh, whereby and whereunder appellant no. 1 has been found guilty for the offence under sections 376, 302 and 201/ 34 of the Indian Penal Code and appellant no. 2 has been found guilty for the offence under sections 302/34 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code and appellant no. 1 has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for life and a fine of Rs. 10,000/ - under section 376 I.P.C. and in default of fine further sentenced to undergo R.I. for one year and under section 302 I.P.C. he has been sentenced to death and a fine of Rs. 50,000/ - and R.I. for seven years and fine of Rs. 5,000/ - under section 201/34 I.P.C. and in default of fine further sentence for one year and appellant no. 2 has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for life and fine of Rs. 10,000/ - under section 302/34 I.P.C. and in default of payment of fine further sentence to undergo R.I. for one year and for offence under section 201/34 I.P.C. sentenced to undergo R.I. for three years and fine of Rs. 1,000/ - and in default of payment of fine further sentenced to undergo R.I. for one month and all the sentences to run concurrently.

(2.) BRIEF facts leading to the above -mentioned Death Reference and Cr. Appeal preferred by the appellants are that in the evening of 26.8.1995 the son of the appellant Baldeo Lakra, namely, Jagdeo Lakra went to the house of the informant and invited her for dinner at their house. According to informant P.W. 1, she alongwith her minor daughter Anita and son Birendra reached at the house of the appellant at about 8 p.m. She further asserted that after the children were fed, the appellant Chando Devi put Anita to sleep in another room. Thereafter she took the meal and she was about to leave the place, at this juncture of time Anita was searched and found missing from the room. She made frantic search for her missing daughter alongwith witnesses but failed to locate Anita whole night. The dead body of Anita Lakra was found next day in the afternoon at a distance of about 500 yards in the fields of Bhuwan Bhuiyan situated in village Morangi alongwith injuries on various parts of her body.

(3.) THE learned Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh has referred this judgment in terms of Section 366 Cr.P. C. in the last weeks of March, 2007 for confirmation of the sentence passed against the appellant no. 1, Baldeo Lakra. At the same time Cr. Appeal (DB) No. 455 of 2007 was preferred by both the convicts in the last week of April, 2007. Since the matter was for confirmation of Death Sentence, the appeal alongwith the Death Reference has been taken up for hearing on priority basis.