Md. Amzad @ Amzad vs State of Bihar

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2024 Supreme(Pat) 26

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
ASHUTOSH KUMAR and NANI TAGIA, JJ.
Criminal Appeal (DB) No.1026 of 2017
(18.1.2024)
Md. Amzad @ Amzad ... Appellant
vs.
State of Bihar ... Respondent

Advocates appeared:
For the Appellant : Mr. Amit Kumar Anand.
For the Respondent: Mr. Satya Narayan Prasad, APP.

Headnote:
Indian Penal Code, 1860 – Section 2(m), 302, 376, 376A – Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 – Section 4 and 6 – Rape of Minor – Murder – Punishment Altered – Appellant raped and killed a 17 year old girl – Police after investigation submitted charge-sheet upon appellant and he was put on trial – Trial Court convicted and sentenced the appellant – House of appellant is only at a stone-throw distance from house of deceased – Appellant had overcome by lust and had committed a horrendous act of not only raping a minor but also killing her and that too with utmost depravity – Trial Court took note of the fact that appellant was first offender – Did not have any criminal history and bore good reputation about his conduct – Was a person of young age and from a poor strata of society – Fell short of "Rarest of the Rare" test still held that appellant deserved imprisonment for remainder of his natural life – Complete paucity of material with respect to appellant conduct in jail for all these years – However, absence of any negative report regarding conduct – Sentence of a minimum term of twenty years of actual imprisonment for all the three counts – Appeal is dismissed, sentences are modified to the extent indicated above- Interlocutory applications disposed off. (Paras 2, 4, 9, 10 and 55 to 60)

Ashutosh Kumar, J.—We have heard Mr. Amit Kumar Anand, learned Advocate for the sole appellant and Mr. Satya Narayan Prasad, learned APP for the State.

2. The appellant stands convicted under Sections 376, 2(m), 376 (A) and 302 of the IPC and Sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012, vide judgment dated 27.07.2017 passed by the learned 1st Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Purnea in Special POCSO Case No. 24 of 2017, arising out of Kasba P.S. Case No. 53 of 2017.

3. The appellant has been sentenced vide order dated 31.07.2017 to undergo imprisonment for the remainder of his life and a fine of Rs. 25,000/- each for the offences under Sections 376(2)(m), 376(A) and 302 of the IPC. No separate sentence has been awarded under Sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012.

4. A 17 year old girl was raped and killed at the hands of the appellant.

5. The report about the occurrence was lodged by her elder sister (P.W. 5), a 19 year old girl, who was practically a witness to the grisly crime. She had reported on 10.04.2017 at about 12 P.M. at her house that in the morning, the deceased had gone to attend to call of nature in the fields and she had also gone to the fields for the same purpose but somewhat later than her sister. While she was coming back home, she saw some movement in the maze field where the crops had been sown by her uncle/Lakshami Sah (P.W. 2) as he had obtained the land for share cropping. Suspecting some herbivorous animal nibbling away at the crops, she went near the place where she had spotted the movement and was stunned to see that her younger sister (deceased) lay naked, with her hands and legs tied with a rope and her mouth gagged with a piece of cloth and the appellant, a neighbour, raping her. Seeing her, the appellant got up and ran away. She found her sister to be completely motionless with identifiable nail-bite marks and bruises on her body. Perhaps she had died. She shouted for help and also rushed back to her home and informed her parents and others about what she had seen in the field. Her family members and the villagers thereafter went to the P.O. and all of them brought the deceased home and untied her. She had died by that time.

6. Before reporting the matter to the police, all the family members of P.W. 5 along with other villagers went to the house of the appellant to look for him, but his entire family perhaps had absconded. The police party then arrived at the house of the informant where her fardbeyan/statement was recorded.

7. On the basis of the aforenoted fardbeyan/statement of P.W. 5 Kasba P.S. Case No. 53 of 2017 dated 10.04.2017 was registered for investigation under Sections 376 and 302 of the IPC as well as Sections 3, 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012.

8. The police was informed on telephone that a girl in a teens had been raped and killed. The police party had arrived at the house of the deceased and then had gone to the field where the occurrence is said to have taken place. The police found an Aadhaar Card bearing the name, signature and the photograph of the appellant, which was seized.

9. The police after investigation submitted charge-sheet upon the appellant and he was put on Trial.

10. The learned Trial Court, after having examined ten witnesses on behalf the prosecution and two on behalf of the defence, convicted and sentenced the appellant as aforesaid.

11. At the Trial, P.W. 5 has supported the prosecution evidence in its entirety. She has repeated the story with exactitude before the Trial Court.

12. Seeing the appellant mounting over the deceased, she started shouting. Appellant thereafter is said to have run away towards West. She also hurried back home and spoke everything to her parents and others. All the members of family were informed about what she had seen in the fields. The family members then went to the field and brought back the dead body of the deceased. She had nail-bite marks on her throat. The victim had been bleeding from her nose and there appeared to be contusi