The prosecution must prove the guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt; inconsistencies in witness testimony led to acquittal of appellants.

Judgment :

S.S. Mishra, J.

The present Criminal Appeal, filed by the appellants under Sections 374(2) of the Cr. P.C., is directed against the judgment and order dated 31.05.1994 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Balangir in Sessions Case No.4/2 of 1994 arising out of G.R. Case No.46 of 1993, whereby the learned trial Court while acquitting the accused-appellants, namely, Sushil Panigrahi, Ramesh @ Ranjan Sethi, Premananda Bariha and Petu Sethi from all the charges; convicted the present appellants for the offences under Sections 148 /325/294/379 of I.P.C. read with Section 149 of I.P.C. and on that count, they were sentenced to undergo R.I. for five years and to pay a fine of Rs.200/- each, in default of payment of fine, to undergo further R.I. for one month for the offence under Section 325 of I.P.C. They were also sentenced to undergo R.I. for one year each for the offence under Section 148 of I.P.C., one month each under Section 294 of I.P.C. and one year each under Section 379 of I.P.C. The sentences were directed to run concurrently.

2. The present appeal is pending since 21.06.1994. When the matter was taken up for hearing on 03.07.2025, none has appeared on behalf of the appellants. Therefore, this Court requested Mr. Bijaya Kumar Ragada, learned counsel, who is present in Court to assist the Court as Amicus Curiae. He has readily accepted the same and after obtaining entire record, assisted the Court very effectively. This Court records appreciation for the meaningful assistance rendered by Mr. Ragada.

3. Heard Bijaya Kumar Ragada, learned Amicus Curiae appearing for the appellants and Mr. Sarathi Jyoti Mohanty, learned Additional Standing Counsel for the State.

4. The prosecution case in terse and brief is that on 17.05.1993, the informant-Hrushikesh Meher being the Forest Official and other staffs were performing night patrolling duty at Pitamahula Mahanadi Ferry Ghat. It is alleged that on 18.05.1993, while they were coming to Pitamahul Mahanadi Ferry Ghat and were 10 to 12 feet away from the ghat, they saw two boats at the ghat and one was loaded with 40 bundles of fire wood. By seeing the informant and other staff, the accused- appellant No.1-Nepal Bariha took away the loaded boat to the other side of the river. It is the case of the prosecution that one hour thereafter, the forest officials found that some persons were coming with forest materials such as 240 numbers of dry bamboo, 43 numbers of Arapati and 30 bundles of fire wood. On seeing them, the forest officials had gone towards that side. At this juncture, the informant and all other officials including Bhagyadhar Chand (P.W.3) found some people coming towards river side in the boat with lathi, tangia, falashi and sword etc. and were shouted to kill P.W.3, the forest guard. Hearing this sound in the boat, P.W.3 persuaded other forest officials to leave the place. As per the prosecution story, there were about fifty people coming in the boat and out of that, around twenty to twenty-five people armed with arms chased the said P.W.3 and others surrounded the other forest officials including the informant. The said persons forcibly obtained some writing from the informant and other officials of the forest department and fled away from the place. It is also alleged that the other persons, who were chasing the forest guard Sri Chand (P.W.3) assaulted him, as a result of which, he fell down on the ground and the accused persons snatched away his wrist watch and goggles.

5. Basing upon such allegation, on the same day i.e. on 18.05.1993, F.I.R. was registered at Birmaharajpur P.S. and after completion of investigation, the police filed charge-sheet against ten acc