JUDGMENT :

S.K. Sahoo, J.

The petitioner Rama Chandra Moharana along with co-accused Ajaya Maharana faced trial in the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Assistant Sessions Judge, Khurda, Camp-Bhubaneswar in S.T. Case No.227/47/341 of 1997/96 for offence punishable under section 307 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Trial Court vide impugned judgment and order dated 03.11.1998 found the petitioner and the co-accused guilty under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years.

The petitioner preferred Criminal Appeal No.53 of 1998 in the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Khurda at Bhubaneswar and the learned Appellate Court vide impugned judgment and order dated 31.03.2001 altered the conviction to section 326 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years, hence the revision.

2. The prosecution case as per the First Information Report lodged by Dibakar Rout before the officer in charge of Balianta Police Station is that on 23.3.1995 at about 6.00 p.m. while the younger son of the informant Pramod Kumar Rout (P.W.10) was r