Full Judgment
1. Heard Mr. S. C. Kayal, learned Amicus Curiae appearing on behalf of appellant and Mr. Z. Kamar, learned Public Prosecutor.
2. This appeal is directed against the judgment and order, dated 6.3.1998, passed by the Sessions Judge, Morigaon, in Sessions Case No. 17/97, convicting the accused appellant under Section 302 IPC to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000, in default, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for 6 months.
3. The case of the prosecution, in brief, be stated as follows :
'On 23.3.1997, at around 6.00 A.M., when the old victim couple, namely, Kesharam Nath and Kanduri Devi, enjoying warmth of fire in their courtyard, their son Sukuram Nath and grand-son Prafulla Nath, the present appellant came to the house of the victim couple and hacked both of them with a dao (Khukri) causing instantaneous death.'
4. PW 3, Kafai Nath, is the eyewitness to the occurrence. He deposed that when he was taking his cattle to the field, he saw Prafulla Nath at the gate of Kesharam Nath with a khukri in his hand. This witness tried to persuade the accused Prafulla Nath not to quarrel and leave the place, but the accused pushed him away and entered into the house of Kesharam Nath and hacked him and also assaulted Kanduri Devi, the grand mother and thereafter left the place of occurrence. PW 3 had seen the occurrence from close quarter and has deposed to that effect. Although this witness was cross-examined, we find that the defence has miserably failed to discredit his testimony. PW 3 is an independent witness and he has got no animosity with the accused. Nothing has been brought out to show that this witness falsely implicated the accused appellant.
5. PW 5, Saniram Nath, is another eye witness to the occurrence. He has deposed that when he was washing his face, at that time, Bokaram Nath came and informed him about the commotion, going on at Kesharam's house and accordingly, both proceeded to the place of occurrence and when they reached there, they saw the accused appellant Prafulla Nath leaving the house of the deceased with a blood stained dao (khukri) followed by his father Sukuram Nath, It may be mentioned herein that Sukuram Nath was also tried along with accused Prafulla Nath, but on conclusion of the trial, Sukuram Nath was acquitted, PW 5 thereafter entered into the house of the deceased and saw bleeding injuries on the persons of the deceased.
6. PW 3, Madan Chandra Nath, PW 4, Azizur Rahman and other co-villagers, who came to the place of occurrence, saw the deadbody of the deceased with injuries. The evidence of PW 6, Tikhan Chandra Nath, stands on the same footing of PW 5, as this witness also deposed that when he arrived at the house of the deceased, he saw Prafulla with a blood stained dao (khukri) in his hand followed by his father Sukuram Nath.
7. PW 8, Jayanta Nath, is the grand son of the deceased, who was staying with the victim couple and on the fateful day, at 5 A.M., he was sent to Thaneswar's place and when he returned back at 6 A.M., he found two injuries on the person of the deceased and at that time, his grand mother was alive and she reported to him that the assault had been made by the accused Prafulla Nath.
8. PW 7, is the doctor Banshidhar Das, who held the autopsy over the two dead body and found as follows :
'In my opinion, cause of death is braring and spinal injury with blood loss.
Ext. 4 is the post-morterm report over the dead body of Kesharam Nath and Ext. 4(1) is my signature.
On the same day at about 2.40 P.M. I did post-mortem examination over
the dead body Kanduri Devi, 65 years of police requisition on being
identified by C/312 Firuj Ali and Sri Lakhidhar Nath and Sri Leben Nath
and found the following injuries :
Injury No. 1-5' x 2' incised wound transversely over left temporal bone, traversing it, injured the brain matter.
Injury No. 2-51/2 x 2' incised wound vertically traverse the occipital and parietal bone on left side cutting the brain matter. Blood clot present in brain matter. Both these injuries were ante-mortem in nature.'
9. In the opinion of the doctor, the death of Kesharan Nath and Kanduri Devi was due to blood loss resulting from the brain injurity.
10. In the present case, we find that the evidence of the eye witness PW 3 stands fully supported and corroborated by the medical evidence on record which clearly established that this is a case of homicidal death inasmuch as PW 5 and 6 also saw the accused Prafulla came out from the house of the deceased with a blood stained dao (kukri). PW 6 also deposed that PW 5 was also present at the place of occurrence. Thus, the evidence of the prosecution witnesses had corroborated each other and for the reasons as stated above, we find absolutely no material to disbelieve the eye witness and other prosecution witnesses. The two deceased were aged about 30 years and 65 years and the death caused due to the injury by sharp weapons used by the appellant Prafulla Nath is apparent.
11. For the reasons aforesaid, we find that the prosecution has established the charge beyond all reasonable doubt and hence there is no merit in this appeal. Accordingly, this appeal stands dismissed.
12. Send a copy of this order to the Superintendent of Jail and also to the Sessions Judge at Nagaon.