ATWA ORAON Vs. STATE OF BIHAR (NOW JHARKHAND)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the appellant and the learned counsel for the State.

(2.) The appellant is aggrieved by the impugned Judgement of conviction dated 21.03.1996 and Order of sentence dated 23.03.1996, passed by the learned 1 st Additional Sessions Judge, Gumla, in S.T. No. 97 of 1993, whereby the appellant Atwa Oraon has been found guilty and convicted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Upon hearing on the point of sentence the appellant has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for life for the said offence. It may be stated that there were four accused persons facing the trial, out of whom one accused Lahsu Oraon died during the pendency of the trial itself, whereas the other co-accused Budhni Orain and Swati Orain have been acquitted by the Trial Court below.

(3.) The prosecution case was instituted on the basis of the written report submitted at Bishunpur Police Station, by the informant Lahsunia Devi, the wife of the deceased Hiramuni Oraon, on 5.11.1992, wherein she has stated that she and her husband were working in their barn at about 5:00 P.M., in the previous evening, when Lahsu Oraon, the elder brother of her husband, came after tending his cattle, and started abusing her husband stating that he had got his gram crop destroyed by his animal. Her husband told him that he would compensate his loss. In the meantime Lahsu Oraon came accompanied with his son Atwa Oraon, and started assaulting her husband. Both of them started assaulting her husband by pressing him on the ground and also by pressing his neck, and assaulting him by fists and slaps. Thereafter, Atwa Oraon brought a tangi from his house and started assaulting her husband by tangi, during which Lahsu Oraon, his wife Budhni Orain and daughter-in-law Swati Orain were holding the deceased to the ground. She has stated that all the accused persons committed the murder of her husband at the spot, and when she tried to save her husband she was also assaulted. Thereafter, she went to her village and informed the villagers and alongwith the villagers she came back again at about 9:00 P.M., in the night, when she found her husband dead. On the basis of the written report given by the informant, Bishunpur P.S. Case No. 63 of 1992, corresponding to G.R. No. 973 of 1992, was instituted against all the four named accused persons, for the offence under Sections 302 / 34 of the Indian Penal Code, and investigation was taken up. After investigation the police submitted the charge-sheet in the case.