IMPORTANT POINTS
Inquest, Related witness.

JUDGMENT

K.S. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. The appellant, the 10th accused in Sessions Case No.20 of 1986, was charge-sheeted along with others for the offences punishable under Section 147, 148, 149, 323 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25/27 of the Arms Act. The Trial Court, after appreciation of the oral and documentary evidence vide its judgment dated 22.4.1987 acquitted all the accused persons, except Accused No.3 Tarun Mondal, who was convicted for the offences punishable under Section148 and 302 of IPC for causing the murder of Amrita Dome and sentenced him to suffer imprisonment for life under Section 302 IPC.

2. The State of West Bengal, aggrieved by the order of acquittal, preferred G.A. No.22 of 1987 before the High Court of Calcutta. The High Court vide its judgment dated 28.11.2006 partly allowed the appeal and convicted the appellant along with four others, while maintaining the order of acquittal passed by the trial Court, in respect of rest of the accused persons. Tarun Mondal, 3rd accused, was further found guilty of the murder of Sultan Khan.

3. We are, in this case, concerned only with the appeal filed by Guiram Mondal, 10th accused. The prosecution case, in short, is that on 26.4.1984 at about 12 hours the accused persons formed an unlawful assembly with deadly weapons and took along with them Amrita Dome and Sultan Khan through a kuchha road in village Pechaliya and, in the process, assaulted both Amrita Dome and Sultan Khan. Some of the witnesses, who are relatives of the deceased Amrita Dome, tried to save him but they were also assaulted by the accused persons and the informant Sadananda Dome (PW1) was shot at by a pipe-gun and he sustained injuries. While the accused persons were proceeding as such, Amrita Dome managed to escape from their clutches and took shelter in the house of Monohar Mondal @ Manu Mondal (PW2). The accused persons, however, chased Amrita Dome and brought him out of the house of Manu Mondal and killed him in the passage or pathway lying between the house of Manu Mondal and his nephew Sahadeb Mondal. Accused persons after murdering Amrita Dome left the spot to chase Sultan Khan, who was left injured in front of Durga temple which was close to the house of Monohar Mondal. Sultan Khan was also murdered by them and they carried away his death body to the grazing field and left it there.

4. Sadananda Dome (PW1) then passed this information, which was recorded in writing by PW 15 on 26.4.1984 at 6.05 PM and the same was treated as the FIR. The same was sent to the police station and was received there at 7.25 PM and on the basis of that FIR a case was registered against the accused persons and they were charge-sheeted for the offences, already mentioned earlier. PW 15, the Investigating Officer visited the place of occurrence and prepared the sketch map and conducted the inquest in the presence of PW 10, the Pradhan of the Gram Panchayat and sent both the dead bodies for post-mortem examination through constable PW 13.

5. PW 12 Dr. S. Nath, conducted the post-mortem on both the dead bodies and opined that the death was due to effect of head injury and associated injuries which were anti mortem and homicidal in nature. PW 15 on 13.5.1984 arrested various accused persons including the appellant and were brought before the trial court. On the side of the prosecution 16 witnesses were examined. PW 1 Sadananda Dome, the first informant is the brother of the deceased Amrita Dome. Monohar Mondal, in whose house the deceased Amrita Dome took shelter, was examined as PW2. Menoka Dome, wife of deceased Amrita Dome, was also examined as PW 3 and Sankar Dome, the father of the deceased Amrita Dome was also examined as PW 5. On the side of the defence, Joydev Garian DW1 was examined.

6. Dr. S. Nath was examined as PW12, who conducted the post-mortem on the dead bodies on 27.4.1984 deposed that on the dead body of Amrita Dome he found (1) one incised wound on right lateral aspect of forehead 2