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JUDGMENT

NON-REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.88 OF 2007

SUBAL GHORAI & ORS.

…

APPELLANTS

Vs.

STATE OF WEST BENGAL

…

RESPONDENT

JUDGMENT

(SMT.) RANJANA PRAKASH DESAI, J.

1.

The appellants viz. A1-Subal Ghorai, A2-Bishnupada

Ghorai, A3-Ranjit Samanta (since deceased), A4-Sunil

Senapati, A5 Pulin Sat @ Samanta, A6-Sudarshan Ghorai, A7-

Nemai Ghorai, A8-Biswanath Ghorai, A9-Joydeb Ghori @

Bhatu, A10-Tarapada Samanta, A11-Bistu Samanta, A12-

Bhanu Samanta, A13-Uttam Samanta @ Bhalu, A14-Sambhu

Jana, A15-Dipu Samanta @ Dipak, A16-Subal Samanta (since

deceased), A17-Dulal Samanta (since deceased), A18-Nentu

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Dhara (since deceased), A19-Rakhal Dhara, A20-Batul Dhara,

A21-Kengal Senapati, A22-Nikhil Senapati, A23-Sibu

Pramanik, A24-Dhiren Shee @ Singh (since deceased), A26-

Niranjan Das, A28-Sambhu Samanta, A29-Probodh Jana, A35-

Satrughna Patra and A36-Duryadhan Patra (“appellants

accused”) along with 7 other accused viz. A25-Subal Shee

@ Singh, A27-Tapan Pramanik, A30-Padmalochan Das, A31-

Dima Pramanik, A32-Manick Pramanik, A33-Sankar Das and

A34-Bhakti Bhusan Maity were tried by the 4^th Court of the

Additional Sessions Judge, Midnapore in Sessions Trial Case

No.XXIII of May, 1989, for offences punishable under

Sections 147, 148, 302 read with Section 149, Section 324

read with Section 149 and Section 436 read with Section 149

of the Indian Penal Code (“the IPC”).

2.

It must be mentioned here that the charge-sheet

mentioned the names of 39 persons but learned Additional

Sessions Judge commenced the sessions trial in respect of

36 persons because out of 39 persons, 3 persons were held

to be juveniles. Their trial was separated from that of the

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remaining 36 persons. For the sake of convenience, we shall

refer to the accused as per the numbers assigned to them by

the trial court.

3.

The prosecution case shall be stated more in detail, a

little later. Suffice it to state, at this stage, that the case of

the prosecution in short was that on 14/5/1986, the goat of

deceased-Hemanta damaged the paddy of A1-Subal.

Juvenile delinquent-Gopal and his mother beat the said goat.

Juvenile delinquent-Gopal was detained by deceased-

Hemanta and, after sometime, he was released. This

infuriated the accused. They came to the bund armed with

weapons and attacked deceased-Hemanta, deceased-Manik

and deceased-Gour, who succumbed to the injuries

sustained by them. They also assaulted PW-2 Lakshmi, PW-5

Ananta, PW-12 Jamini and PW-13 Mandakini. PW-1 Promila,

the wife of Mohanta Dhara, who witnessed the incident,

lodged the FIR. The accused were then arrested and tried as

aforesaid. The prosecution in support of its case examined

20 witnesses. In defence, the accused examined 8

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witnesses. They denied the prosecution case. A1-Subal

Ghorai, A24-Dhiren Shee and A34-Bhakti Bhushan pleaded

defence of alibi.

4.

After considering the evidence, by judgment and order

dated 7/9/1994, learned Additional Sessions Judge convicted

the appellants-accused and A25-Subal, A27-Tapan, A30-

Padmalochan, A31-Dima, A32-Manick, A33-Sankar and A34-

Bhakti Maity for the offences punishable under Section 302

read with Section 149 of the IPC and sentenced them to

undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-.

In default of payment of fine, they were directed to undergo

two years rigorous imprisonment. They were also convicted

under Section 436 read with Section 149 of the IPC and

sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years

and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-. In default of payment of fine,

they were directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two

years. Appellants-A1-Subal, A2-Bistu, A18-Nentu and A21-

Kengal were also convicted for the offence punish