- (1.) The aforesaid six Criminal Appeals and the proceeding upon reference under Section 366 of the Cr.P.C. made to this Court by the Trial Court for confirmation of sentence of death passed against the appellants since arising out of a common judgement and order, all are taken up for hearing together and are disposed of by this judgement. In a sessions trial held before the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track, 3rd Court, Barrackpore, 24-Parganas (North), the aforesaid appellants along with 5 others were charged under Sections 395/396/397 of the Indian Penal Code, and in addition to that the appellants (1) Shisu Pal, (2) Satish Gautam, (3) Babulal Singh, (4) Ganpatram, (5) Balbir Singh, (6) Prem Pal, (7) Banwari Singh, (8) Bhagwan Singh, (9) Srikanta Dey were charged under Section 412 of the IPC and the appellants Ratan Tarai, Surya Golder, Babar Ali Mondal, Babulal Singh along with three others were charged under Section 25 (i)(a)/27 of the Arms Act. however, the Trial Court acquitted the accuseds Tapash Biswas, Biswajit Mondal and Sujit Das from all the charges and the appellants Ratan Tarai, Surjya Golder, Babar Ali Mondal and Babulal Singh from the charges relating to the offences punishable under Sections 25 (i)(a)/27 of the Arms Act.
(2.) In the trial all the appellants were found guilty under Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code and accordingly they being convicted thereunder, each of them were sentenced to death and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- and in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year. Similarly, all the appellants were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each and in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year for their conviction under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code. They were also sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 7 years for their conviction under Section 395 read with Section 397 of the Indian Penal Code. The appellants Shisu Pal, Babulal Singh, Satish Gautam, Prem Pal, Bhagwan Singh and Srikanta Dey were sentenced to imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- and in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year on their conviction under Section 412 of the Indian Penal Code. The sentences were directed to run concurrently. The trial two others, accuseds Ganpatram and Balbir Singh were also convicted under Sections 395/396/397/412 of the Indian Penal Code, since after pronouncement of order of conviction, they fled away from the custody, consequently no sentence was passed against them.
(3.) Shorn of details the case of the prosecution goes like this; The defacto-complainant Bimal Das, the P.W. 1 along with the other members of his family, viz., his son P.W. 5 Bidyut Das, the daughter P.W. 4 Barsha Das and his wife Chandana Das, were residing together in the third floor of the premises No. 7, Lenin Sarani, Kanchrapara within the Police Station Bijpur. The defacto-complainant was a jeweller by profession, having his shop room and workshop situated in the ground floor of the said premises. The P.W. 2 Abhijit Paul and P.W. 3 Niranjan Paul @ Gosai are the employees of defactocomplainant and at the time of incident they were present at the workshop. On the fateful night at about 3 hours the defacto-complainant woke up from his sleep due to barking of dogs and then on being attracted by some noises opened the door of his room and found 5/7 young persons wearing barmuda pants were trying to break open the collapsible gate of his bedroom. At the same time his wife Chandana Das also woke up as well as his son P.W. 5 Bidyut Das and as on being asked by the defacto-complainant, as his wife Chandana Das rushed to the balcony for seeking help from their neighbours, when the miscreants who were already hiding there, threw her down from the verandah as soon as she identified one of them and shouted Surya Tui . Thereafter, the miscreants having entered their bedroom on the point of firearms took the defacto-complainant and his son P.W. 5 to the workshop situated at the ground floor, there they forced the P.W. 2 and P.W. 3 who were inside the workshop to open the door and on the point of firearms keeping all four of them silent looted away huge ornaments, cash money from the iron chest and also snatched the Mobile Phone from the defactocomplainant and fled away from the spot. The police receiving information about such crime arrived at the spot and after obtaining a written complaint from the P.W. 1 Bimal Das, commenced investigation. 8. During investigation on the basis of source information police arrested Tapash Biswas, Biswajit Mondal and Sujit Das, acquitted accuseds and the appellant Ratan Tarai on February 25, 2008. Thereafter, on the selfsame day the appellants Surya Goldar and Babar Ali Mondal were arrested and pursuant to the statement made by them some arms and ammunition were recovered. On April 21, 2008 the appellants, viz. Satish Gautam, Prem Pal, Bhagwan Singh, Banwari Singh, Shisu Pal, Babulal Singh, Balbir Singh, Ganptram were arrested by the police and huge stolen properties and house-breaking instruments were recovered from their possessions. The accused Srikanta Dey was arrested on April 23, 2008. During their custody the accused persons were thoroughly interrogated and pursuant to their statements, the police further recovered the stolen properties, and house-breaking instruments. The appellant Shisu Pal was arrested on April 21, 2008 at Badaun, U.P. and the stolen Samsung Mobile Phone of the defacto-complainant was recovered from his possession. On four different dates the accused persons were placed in T.I. Parade and they were identified by P.W. 1 Bimal Das, P.W. 2 Abhijit Paul, P.W. 3 Niranjan Paul, P.W. 5 Bidyut Das and P.W. 6 Samudra Chakraborty.;