- (1.) The appellants, two in number, were arrayed as A1 and A2 along-with Kisto Kisku, who was arrayed as A3, in Sessions Case No. 162 of 1987. The Trial Judge, finding the appellants alone guilty for the offence under section 302 read with Section 34 I.PC., sentenced each of them to imprisonment for life, while he acquitted A3, Kisto Kisku. In the judgment, the appellants and Kisto Kisku will be referred as A1 to A3 for the sake of convenience.
(2.) The case of the prosecution is this: P.W. 8, Bitia Soren, is the sister-in-law of the deceased, Biti Murmu. The first appellant's son fell ill and the appellants/accused were under the impression that since the deceased, Biti Murmu, is a witch, she has caused a spell on the son of the accused and therefore, they were nurturing a grievance against the deceased. It is the case of the prosecution that on the date of incident, when the villagers had gone to the cremation ground to cremate the dead body of a villager, Jhora Hansda, A1 and A2, Phulia Tudu and Malgo Soren, chased the deceased, Biti Murmu, and she took asylum in the house of P.W. 8.The appellants entered the house and caught hold.of the deceased, Biti Murmu. P.W. 8, at that time, was engaged in dehusking paddy. The first accused caught the hands of the deceased and pulled her out and the deceased fell down. The first accused, Phulia Tudu, assaulted her with lathi and when P.W. 8 attempted to intervene, she was threatened with her life. The other accused was present there at that time and after the occurrence, they ran away from the place. After the return of the villagers including the husband of P.W. 8, information was passed on to them. Thereafter, fardbeyan, Ext. 3 was given by P.W. 8 at Raneshwar police station at 2.30 p.m., which was registered as a crime and Ext. 6 is the first information report and investigation was taken up by P.W. 9.
(3.) P.W. 9, on taking up the investigation, reached the scene of occurrence, prepared the inquest report, Ext. 5, and sent the dead body to the hospital with a requisition to the Doctor to conduct autopsy.;