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ORISSA HIGH COURT
P. K. MOHANTI AND B. K. BEHERA, JJ.
STATE OF ORISSA AND ETC.
VERSUS
TRINATH DASH AND OTHERS
Government Appeal No. 101 of 1977 and Cri. Appeals Nos. 105, 106 and 112 of 1977,
Decided on : 5 -1 -1982.
CRIMINAL APPEAL - WRONGFUL CONFINEMENT - CAUSING EVIDENCE OF OFFENCE TO DISAPPEAR - GIVING FALSE INFORMATION - SECTION 342, 201, 203 OF IPC - PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN.
Fact of the Case:
The appellants, who were police personnel, were charged with wrongfully confining the deceased, committing murder, causing evidence of the murder to disappear, giving false information, and causing hurt to the deceased and another person. The trial court acquitted the accused of some charges and convicted them of others.
Finding of the Court:
The High Court held that the evidence did not support the conviction of the accused for murder, causing grievous hurt, or causing evidence of the offence to disappear. However, the court upheld the conviction for wrongful confinement and giving false information.
Issues: 1. Whether the evidence supported the conviction of the accused for murder, causing grievous hurt, or causing evidence of the offence to disappear? 2. Whether the evidence supported the conviction of the accused for wrongful confinement and giving false information?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court held that the evidence did not support the conviction of the accused for murder, causing grievous hurt, or causing evidence of the offence to disappear because: - The medical evidence did not conclusively establish that the death of the deceased was homicidal. - There was no clear evidence as to how and under what circumstances the deceased died. - The prosecution failed to prove that the accused had caused evidence of the offence to disappear by removing the dead body of the deceased and hanging it to a tree. 2. The court upheld the conviction of the accused for wrongful confinement and giving false information because: - The evidence established that the accused had wrongfully confined the deceased in the police lock-up without being arrested. - The evidence established that the accused had given false information that the deceased had committed suicide by hanging himself to a tree.
Final Decision: The High Court dismissed the government appeal and maintained the orders of acquittal in respect of the charges for which the appeal had been preferred. The court allowed Criminal Appeal No. 105 of 1977 in part, upholding the conviction and sentence of the accused Trinath Dash for wrongful confinement and setting aside the convictions and sentences for the other offences. The court allowed Criminal Appeals Nos. 106 and 112 of 1977 and set aside the convictions and sentences passed against the appellants in those appeals.
JUDGEMENT
Behera, J.:- The appellants in Criminal Appeals Nos. 105, 106 and 112 of 1977, who figure as respondents in Government Appeal No. 101 of 1977, while functioning as police personnel attached to the Nuagaon Police Station in the district of Puri, stood charged under Ss.302, 342, 201, 203, 331 and 323, all read with S.34 of the Indian Penal Code, for having wrongfully confined Muli Naik (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') a resident of village Mahitama, for committing murder of the deceased, causing evidence of the offence of murder to disappear by hanging the dead body of the murdered deceased to a tree in order to screen themselves from legal punishment, giving false information that the deceased had committed suicide, causing grievous hurt to the deceased for the purpose of extorting from him a confessional statement in a case under Ss.457 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter called the Code) in which the deceased and Magi Nails (P.W. 5) were the suspects and causing hurt to Magi Naik while he was in the Police lock-up.
2. We would now proceed to State the case of the prosecution. In July, 1975, the accused Trinath Dash, accused Brundaban Swain and the accused Kalandi Charan Patro were functioning as Officer-in-Charge, Assistant Sub-Inspector and Write Constable respectively and the remaining accused persons were functioning as Constables being attached to the Nuaguon Police Station in the district of Puri. In a case of theft committed on 26-7-1975 at Mahitama in the house of Shankar Naik (P.W. 1) reported by him verbally to the Officer-in-Charge, the deceased and Magi Naik (P.W. 5) were the suspects. Under the direction of the Officer-in-Charge Trinath Dash, Sahadev Naik (P.W. 2), the Grama Rakshi of village Mahitama, of which village the two suspects were residents, produced Magi Naik (P.W. 5) and the deceased before the Officer-in-Charge Trinath Dash on 27-7-1975 and after their personal search, the suspects were kept confined in the Police lock-up although they had not been arrested. Magi Naik (P.W. 5) and the deceased were tortured at the police station with a view to obtaining confessional statements from them. On 28-7-1975, P.W. 5 and the deceased were asked to pay Rs. 400, but as they refused, they were assaulted by means of fist blows, slaps, sticks and boots by the accused Trinath Dash, Brundaban Swain, Kalandi Charan Patra, Madhab Sahu and Agadhu Champati for which P.W. 5 sustained injuries and the deceased became unconscious. On 29-7-1975, P.W. 5 was forwarded to the court when the deceased had still been kept in the police lock-up. On 29-7-1975, during the night time, the deceased was further assaulted inside the police station. On the day following, i.e., on 30-7-1975, no one was allowed to enter the police station. Even the sweepress attached to the police station and the Grama Rakshis who had come on duty were not allowed to go inside the police station. PW 4 Annapurna Dei (the wife of the deceased) and PW 12 Bhagaban Naik, the brother of the deceased, had come with food for Muli Naik, but neither of them was allowed to meet Muli or give food to him. During the night of the 30th/31st July, 1975, the accused persons, with the help of Kansa Naik (PW 13) and Rama Naik (PW 14), two Grama Rakshis, who had come on duty on 29-7-1975 and had been asked to wait, brought the dead body of Muli Naik from inside the male Hazat and kept on a bamboo Tati on which two sacks had been spread and the dead body was tied to the bamboo Tati by means of ropes. The dead body was carried from the police station to a mango grove near village Mudrang falling on the way to village Sikargochha and was hung to a mango tree by means of a Gamuchha (napkin) tied to its neck to give a colour of suicide. The accused Trinath Dash told all of them not to disclose as to what had happened. He asked the Grama Rakshi Ram Naik (PW 14) to go to Sikargochha in the morning to the house of his relative and on return from that villa
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