D.G.R.PATNAIK, J. - (1.) THE appellant Sudama Singh was charged with, tried and convicted for the offence under Sections 364 of the Indian Penal Code, while appellant Vijoy Shankar Ojha @ Bishnu Ojha was charged with, tried and convicted for the offence under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Chaibasa who vide his judgment dated 14th January 2000 passed in Sessions Trial No. 135 of 1997 has sentenced the appellant Sudama Singh to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life for the offence under Section 364 of the Indian Penal Code, while sentencing the other appellant Vijoy Shankar Ojha @ Bishnu Ojha to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life for the offence under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code who was further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five (5) years for the offence under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code. No separate sentence was imposed on him under Section 364 of the Indian Penal Code. The case relates to the murder of a minor boy Deepak Kumar @ Sonu aged 10 years. The boy was picked up from near his house when he had gone to see the Durga Idol immersion procession on 22.10.1996. Thereafter his dead body was discovered at a far off place in the morning of 24.10.1996 at a hillock known as Mutra tungri within the village of Jaubera Mouza under the Manjhari Police Station in the district of West Singhbhum.
(2.) THE informant Nathu Sirka (PW15) who was the Munda of village Jaubera, was informed by his co -villager namely, Rengo Sirka in the morning of 24.10.1996 that dead body of an unknown minor boy, aged about 10 -11 years, was found lying at Muntra Tungri with several marks of injury on his body. The informant (PW15) accompanied by Rengo Sirka and several other co -villagers went to the place where the dead body of an unknown boy was lying with several injuries on his body. There were bloodstains not only on the body, but also on the earth and on the stone, which was lying by the side of the dead body. Some of the villagers informed that on 22/23 -10.1996 at about 11 -12 midnight, they had seen a Maruti Car crossing the village along the road and after about half an hour, the car returned through the village, but due to darkness, no one could observe the registration number of the vehicle. Since police station was far off at a distance of about 30 KM and due to late hours of night, the informant (PW15) could not send the information to the police promptly. He along with the co - villagers kept vigil near the dead body throughout the night. On the next morning at about 6.00 AM, Officer -in -charge (PW18) of the concerned police station along with other police personnel visited the village, saw the dead body and recorded the statement of the informant as his fardbeyan. The police officer (PW18) conducted inquest on the dead body of the deceased and prepared his inquest report in presence of witnesses. Thereafter, the dead body was forwarded to the police station. The blood stained earth which was found at the place where the dead body was lying, was seized and the seizure list was prepared in presence of the witnesses. The identity of the dead body could not be ascertained, nor was the clothes of the Victim found anywhere nearby. It was apparent that the boy was murdered and after stripping him naked, the assailants had abandoned his dead body at a lonely place and had taken away his clothes. The police officer (PW18) relayed the information regarding recovery of a dead body to all the police stations on the same day. On 25.10.1996 at about 4.00 PM, some residents of Adityapur including Satyanarayan Lal (PW17) appeared at the police station and identified the dead as being that of his grandson Deepak Kumar @ Sonu. The investigating officer (PW18) recorded the statement of Satyanarayan Lal (PW17) and thereafter forwarded the dead body of the deceased boy to the Sadar Hospital, Chaibasa for postmortem examination. In course of his investigation the investigating officer (PW18) visited the R.I.T. (Adityapur) police station and noted down the police station diary entry dated 23.10.1996, which was made on the basis of missing report of the boy, lodged by PW17. The investigating officer (PW18) received information from the residents of village Ganjia regarding the details of a Maruti Car which was referred to by the informant in his fardbeyan, and after tracing out the owner of the car, namely, Sajiv Dwevedi and Jitendra Pandey (PW10) and (PW11), he recorded their respective statements and on the basis of the information given by them, he arrested the appellants Vijoy Shankar Ojha @ Bishnu Ojha and Sudama Singh on 27.10.1996 at Adityapur and he also seized the Maruti Car bearing registration No. BR -18 -3130, which was found parked in front of the house of Vijoy Shankar Ojha (appellant). Besides the car, the investigating officer had also seized one old tape recorder and a pair of plastic toy goggles from the dickey of the car. On the basis of the statement of the witnesses, recorded by him, the investigating officer submitted charge sheet making out a case against the present appellants that they along with Bimal Kerai and Konda Gope @ Jagannath Gope and others had entered into a conspiracy to kidnap the deceased Deepak Kumar @ Sonu and in furtherance of conspiracy and common intention, appellants with the help of their aforesaid other associates, had kidnapped the boy from near his house, took him in the aforesaid maruti car, killed him and dumped his dead body at the place from where it was subsequently recovered. The tyre marks found in the mud near the dead body, led to the inference that the deceased was taken on the seized car and his dead body was dumped at a lonely place. Statement of the witnesses who had seen the Maruti Car passing through the village in the night of 23.10.1996 and the statement of the witnesses who had occasion to see the Maruti Car and noted clown its registration number and had also seen and identified both the appellants, was taken together by the investigating officer (PW18), to draw his inference that the victim boy was taken in the Maruti Car, of which the appellant Vijoy Shankar Ojha was the driver and the appellant Sudama Singh was the associate of Vijoy Shankar Ojha in kidnapping the victim. The appellants had pleaded not guilty to the charges and had claimed to have been falsely implicated in this case.
(3.) AT the trial, prosecution had examined altogether 18 witnesses including the informant Nathu Sirka (PW15), Satyanarayan Lal (PW17), grandfather of the deceased boy, Nitu Sinha (PW17), cousin sister of the deceased boy. Sanjiv Dwevedi (PW10) and Jitendra Pandey (PW11) who are the joint owners of the Marti Van, Dilip Sharma (PW5) who was the seizure witness of Maruti Van bearing registration No. BR -18 -3130, old tape recorder and plastic toy goggles. The list of witnesses includes PW4 and PW8, who had identified the deceased boy, PW9, PW12 and PW14, who had identified the Maruti Van bearing registration No. BR -18 -3130 as being the vehicle which was found stuck in the mud, they had also identified the present appellants, as being the occupants of the car, who had sought help of these witnesses to pull out the vehicle from the mud.;