S.N.MALLICK, J. - (1.) THE present two Criminal Appeals arise out of the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, First Court, Midnapore dated 6 -8 -1989 in Sessions Trial case No. 1 of March, 1989.
(2.) BY the impugned judgment and order of conviction, the learned Additional Sessions Judge has found all the appellants, namely, Motiram and Shyamapada Mondal (Criminal Appeal No. 441 of 1989) and Narahari Das alias Narendra Das (Criminal Appeal No. 108 of 1990) guilty of having committed an offence under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 9B of the Indian Explosives Act.
(3.) THE learned Trial Judge has convicted and sentenced each of them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for ten years under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code but has not passed any separate sentence for their offence under Section 9B of the Indian Explosives Act. Both the appeals have been heard together and will be governed by this judgment. The prosecution case, in short, is as follows : - On the night of 11.3.84, four Homeguards were deputed from Bhagabanpur. P.S. to guard some valuable iron water pipes at Kotlauri more P.S. Bhagabanpur at the request of the Assistant Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal. While they were guarding the said water pipes, a truck bearing No. WMK -3604 came from the direction of Egra at about 1.15 a.m. and stopped at the place where the pipes were lying and immediately about 15/16 dacoits alighted from the truck and from among them 5/6 dacoits encircled the guards being armed with bhojali, knife, bomb, etc. and asked them to keep quiet at the threat of dire consequences, while the remaining 8/9 dacoits within a span of half an hour lifted 30/35 iron pipes and loaded on the truck and thereafter all the dacoits boarded the truck and the truck sped away towards Bajkul shouting cheers of victory to Goddess Ma -Kali and God Biswakarma. Some of the dacoits wore shirt full pant but most of them were clad with lungi, ganjee and gamchha. They were talking in Bengali and were aged between 25 and 50 years. They were seen in the light of the torch used by the dacoits. Immediately thereafter, one of the Homeguards bearing No. 4700129 Rabindra Nath Maity rushed to Bhagabanpur P.S. and reported the dacoity in writing (vide Ext. 1 and Ext. 1/2 written complaint and the formal F.I.R.). Immediately on receipt of this information as per Ext. 1 Bhagabanpur P.S. Case No. 3 dated 12.3.84 was started against 15/16 unknown dacoits under sections 395 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code (vide Ext. 1/2 and P.W. 17 Pranab Kumar Ghosh, S.I. of Police attached to Bhagabanpur P.S. took up investigation and started to chase the fleeing lorry along with P.W. 13 Chandra Bham Singh, A.S.I. of Police along with four Constables in a Police Jeep. The offending lorry was spotted at Norgram within Nandigram P.S. but as it did not stop in spite of signals from the chasing Police vehicle, the Police had to shoot a rifle which punctured a rear tyre of the truck. As a result, the truck moved forward in a zig -zag way and ultimately tilted by its side and the water pipes along with some miscreants rolled down on the road. The iron pipes fell scattered injuring the miscreants under their weight and twelve miscreants were arrested while two others were crushed to death and some, however, managed to escape.;