NARAYAN PAL AND ANR. Vs. THE STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FOURTEEN Appellants facing trial under Section 396. Indian Penal Code in Sessions Trial No. 17/24 of 11)74/73 have been convicted thereunder and sentenced to undergo R.I. for seven years by the Additional Sessions Judge, Balasore on 15 -2 -1975. Three appeals have been preferred by them. In Criminal Appeal No. 33 of 1975 accused No. 1. Narayan and accused No. 14. Manibhadra are the Appellants; in Criminal Appeal No. 84 of 1975 accused No. 8, Rahaman Ali is the Appellant; and in Criminal Appeal No. 76 of 1975 the rest eleven are the Appellants. The last one is Jail Appeal. All the three appeals were heard analogously and this judgment will bind all the appeals.

(2.) THE prosecution case in short is thus: On 16 -4 -1972 at about 9 p. m. some of the villagers of Tholsada had congregated in the house of Bhagaban Baisakh (p.w.1) to discuss regarding payment of rent. That meeting was over by 10 p. m. Thereafter p.w. 5 requested accused Narayan Pal to stay back for a discussion over the local school. They discussed the matter in the courtyard of. p.w. 3 near Tulasi Chaura. At that time p.w. 1, the son of p.w. 3, was preparing a net sitting in the verandah. P. "11. 10. Krushna Chandra Baisakh, son of p.w. 3, was in the house and his wife was in the kitchen. The prosecution story is that suddenly about 13 to 15 dacoits ran into the house, assaulted p.w. 3 bound down accused Narayan, raided the house and removed various articles, such as Sarees, gun, cartridges and ornaments etc. In course of the dacoity the inmates of the house were assaulted and when the villagers tried to intervene brick bats were thrown at them. Also arrows were shot in consequence of which one Pranabandhu Behera, deceased, received wound.

(3.) THE prosecution examined 27 witnesses and the defence none. Out of the p. ws.. the witnesses to the occurrence are p. ws. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9,10, 13, 14. 16 and 23; the three doctors who examined the injured persons are p. ws. 5, 24 and 25 out of whom p.w. 5 held the post mortem; p. ws. 7 and 20 are witnesses to some of the recoveries; p.w. 27 is the Magistrate who conducted the T.I. parade over the suspects; and the rest are link witnesses. The learned lower Court relying on the evidence of identification of the accused persons in Court which was supported by the evidence of their identification before the Magistrate in the T.I. Parade, circumstantial evidence, evidence regarding the injuries on some of the witnesses and evidence leading to the recovery of some cartridges convicted the Appellants.