The main legal point established in the judgment is the reliance on circumstantial evidence, postmortem examination, and witness testimonies to prove culpable homicide amounting to murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

JUDGMENT

S. K. Mishra, J. - The sole appellant-Baikuntha Bihari Dansana assails his conviction for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as 'Penal Code,' for brevity) and sentence to undergo imprisonment for life, recorded by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, (F.T.), Sambalpur in S.T. Case No.213/39 of 2006-07, vide, judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 27.05. 2008.

2. The prosecution case is that, on 04.07.2006, at about 12.30 P.M. (noon) the deceased after taking lunch, went outside. The informant went in search of his uncle, Bijaysankar and at about 1.30 P.M. he found the footwear of the deceased was kept on the verandah of the house of the accused and the house was closed from inside. The informant called the name of his uncle and the accused replied from inside his house that the deceased was not inside his house and did not open the door of his house. Informant suspecting some foul play, asked the accused to open the door, but he did not open it. At about 5.00 P.M. the informant along with Dusmanta Naik, Rajkumar Naik, Janardan Panigrahi and Hruda Chandra Patel, broke open the door of the accused, and found the beheaded dead body of Bijaysankar was lying on the ground, inside his house and the head was kept separately and the accused and his son were also inside his (accused) house.

During investigation, police visited the spot, held inquest over the dead body, arrested the accused, seized axe and sickle, the weapon of offence and other incriminating materials, sent the seized articles for chemical examination and on completion of investigation, submitted charge sheet against the accused under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

3. The appellant took the plea of simple denial.

4. In order to prove its case, the prosecution has examined 12 witnesses. P.W.1, Bipin Bihari Patel is the informant in this case. P.W.6, Hruda Chandra Patel is another nephew of the deceased, a post occurrence witness, P.W.7, Ashok Kumar Patel, scribe of the F.I.R., P.W.3, Santosh Naik is the witness to inquest and seizure of the weapon of offence, P.W.2, Rajkumar Nayak, P.W.4, Rajkumar Agrawalla and P.W.9, Akash Kumar Patel, are the post occurrence witnesses, but they do not support the prosecution case and turned hostile. P.W.8, Janardan Panigrahi, is the another post occurrence witness. P.W.10, Guru Charan Kuanar, is the Grama Rakhi, a witness to seizure of wearing apparels of deceased. P.W.11, Dr. Gobardhana Behera, conducted postmortem examination on the dead body of the deceased. P.W.12, Prabir Keshari Tripathy, is the Investigating Officer in this case. P.W.5, Himansu Dansana, is the son of the accused. He is a child eyewitness was found incompetent to give rational answer, hence, his statement was not recorded by the learned Trial Judge.

In addition to the examination of witnesses, prosecution had relied upon certain documents marked as Ext.1 to Ext.25 and eight materials objects marked as M.O.-I to M.O.-VIII.

5. The case of the prosecution is sought to be proved by circumstantial evidence. In order to establish the case of culpable homicide amounting to murder, the prosecution must establish that the death of the deceased was homicidal in nature. In order to establish the case, the prosecution has examined P.W.11, Dr. Gobardhan Behera, who has conducted the postmortem examination on the dead body of the deceased, Bijaysankar Patel. In his evidence, P.W.11 has stated that on 05.07.2006 he was working as Asst. Surgeon at Sub-Divisional Hospital, Kuchinda and on that day at 12.30 P.M. he conducted postmortem examination and on examination of the dead body, he found the following injuries:-

i. Incised wound on forehead of size 3 x 2 x 2,

ii. Incised wound on left cheek of size 1 x % x 1/2,

iii. Incised wound around neck separating the neck from trunk, 18 x 1 x 6,

iv. Incised wound on right shoulder of size 2 x 2' x 2', v. Incised wound around scrotom of size 4' x 1' x3'.

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