State Of Orissa vs Arjun Das Agrawal

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

1999 Supreme(SC) 862

1999(7) Supreme 165
Supreme Court of India
(From Orissa High Court)
G.T. Nanavati & S.N. Phukan, JJ.
State of Orissa -Appellant
versus
Arjun Das Agrawal & Anr. -Respondents
Criminal Appeal No. 5 of 1993
Decided on 13-8-1999
Counsel for the Parties :
For the Appellant : Raj Kumar Mehta, Advocate.
For the Respondent No. 1 : U.R. Lalit, Sr. Advocate. Ajay Bhalla, P.K. Jain, Advocates.
For the Respondent No. 2 : T.N. Singh, Advocate (A.C.).

Headnote:(i) Indian Penal Code, 1860-Section 302/149 and Section 302/ 34 - Murder - Appeal against acquittal-Respondent one of several accused-High Court while convicting accused who actually inflicted fatal blow u/s 302/34 acquitted accused in question-Evidence on record showed that respondent accused prevented wife of deceased from rescuing victim and holding beard of victim while co-accused was assaulting victim-High Court did not record acceptable reason for acquitting respondent accused-Common intention of respondent accused evident-Though charges were framed u/s 302/149 and 302/34 respondent could be and convicted u/s 302/34-Acquittal set aside.
       Held : It is a settled position of law that Section 34 IPC does not create a distinct offence and it is the participation of the accused that the intention of committing crime is established and Section 34 IPC is attracted. To rope in a person with the aid of Section 34 IPC, prosecution has to prove that the criminal act was done by actual participation of more than one person and that the said act was done in furtherance of common intention of all engaged at a prior concert. (Para 22)
       From the evidence on record as extracted above that accused Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali went to the house of the deceased along with other accused persons where accused Dallip Chand gave knife blows to the deceased. The accused-respondent Manmohan Das also prevented Radhamnai Panda- PW 1 wife of the deceased to rescue her husband as she was pushed by accused-respondent Manmohan Das and she fell down. From the evidence of Kailash Chandra Panda- PW2 we find that the accused-respondent Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali caught hold of tuft of beard of the deceased. The above evidence on record is sufficient come to the finding that in the criminal act namely giving fatal blows to the deceased accused-respondent Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali actively participated in the said criminal act in furtherance of the common object, namely to cause death of the deceased. The Accused - respondent Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali not only went with others to the place of occurrence but he also took active part while accused Dallip Chand gave the blows to the deceased. Regarding acquittal of accused-respondent Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali the High Court had not recorded any acceptable reason. Regarding accused-respondent. For the above reasons the High Court erred in allowing the appeal of accused Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali. The order of acquittal of Manmohan Das @ Manu Bangali is allowed and the said order is set aside. He is convicted under Section 302/34 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. (Paras 16, 23, 24, 25 & 27)
       (ii) Indian Penal Code, 1860-Section 302/149 and 32/34-Murder-Appeal against acquittal-Respondent one of several accused-Respondent accused neither went inside house of deceased nor took part in commission of murder-He only instigated other convicted accused persons when victim was dragged outside-Nothing in evidence to show that due to his instigation more blows were given by other accused persons-No inference can be drawn that respondent accused had common intention to cause death-Acquittal justified. (Para 26)

Judgment

Phukan, J.-Sixteen persons were booked for trial under Sections 302/149, 302/34, 341/149, 449, 451/34, 427/34 and 323 Indian Penal Code for causing death of deceased Bhagirathi Panda. The Sessions Judge, Koraput in Sessions Case No. 134/85 by judgment dated 2nd April, 1986 after appreciation of the evidence of 16 witnesses for prosecution and seven witnesses of defence came to the finding that the deceased met with homicidal death and accordingly convicted accused Dillip Kumar Chand under Section 302 I.P.C., accused Kishanlal Kamini, Manmohan Das alias Manu Bangali, Prafulla Kumar Pradhan and Arjun Das Agrawala under Section 302/149 I.P.C. The trial Court also found accused Radheshyam Agrawala, Uttam Kumar Behra, Devi Misra, Babuli alias Sudhansu Sekhar Das guilty and convicted them under Section 451 and 427 I.P.C. Other accused persons were found not guilty and acquitted them.

2. Accused Dallip Kumar Chand was sentenced to death. Accused Kishanlal Kumini, Prafulla Kumar Pradhan, Manmohan Das alias Manu Bangali and Arjun Das were sentenced to under go imprisonment for life. The trial Court, however, sentenced Radheshyam Agrawala, Uttam Kumar Behera, Devi Misra, Babuli alias Sudhansu Sekhar Das to rigorous imprisonment for one year.

3. The Division Bench of the High Court in death reference No. 1 of 1986 and Criminal Appeal Nos. 72 to 74, 81, 82 and 88 of 1986 by judgment dated 27.1.1987 allowed the appeals of Arjundas Agarwal and Manmohan Das were acquitted. The death reference and appeal of Dallip Kumar Chand were partly allowed and he was convicted under Section 302/34 IPC and his death sentence was converted to rigorous imprisonment for life. The appeals filed by Prafull Kumar Pradhan Kishnlal Kamani, Radheshyam Agarwal, Devi Prasad Misra, Sudhansu Sekhar Das alias Babuli and Utam Kumar Behera were dismissed.

4. The State of Orissa has filed the present appeal in respect of acquittal of Manmohan Das and Arjun Das Agarwal.

5. The occurrence took place in the night of 17th July, 1982 at about 10.00 p.m. The deceased was running a hotel at his residence at village Narala road and at the time of occurrence he closed its business and was taking the accounts from the hotel boys. At about 10.00 p.m. in the night of occurrence some persons knocked at the door of hotel and asked for meals but the deceased told them that Chapati would not be available and they could be served with rice. As soon as hotel boy opened the door accused Debi Misra, Babuli alias Sudhansu Das, Uttam Behera and Radheshyam Agrawala went inside the hotel and immediately picked up quarrels with the deceased. Radhamani Panda w/o deceased rushed in and tried to arrange for the food for the above persons. She took her husband into the adjoining room. Though food was served in two plates, the above persons broke the chairs, tables, plates and tore out the electric wirings as at that time there was no supply of electricity. At that time wife of the deceased heard the cry of pain from the adjacent room and she rushed inside the room. She saw that her husband had been stabbed on his belly. Accused Dillip Chand was holding a knife and along with Kishanlal Kamini was trying to drag the deceased from out of the room. Accused Prafulla Kumar Pradhan also was man-handling the deceased when she tried to rescue her husband, accused Manmohan Das pushed her back. All the four accused dragged the deceased out of the room to the verandah and the accused Dillip Chand gave 3-4 blows. Accused Arjun Das Agrawal standing on the road was instigating the assailants to finish the victim soon. Other accused persons namely Rambilash Agrawala, Motilal Agrawala, Madan Lal Agrawala, Santosh Kumar Kamani, Santosh Mishra, Puspak Biswal and Hajarilal Lal Agrawala surrounded the deceased while he was being assaulted by accused Dillip Chand and his associates. The wife of the deceased and other persons rescued the deceased and carried him back into the house.

6. Radhamani carried her dec

Click Here to Read the rest of this document

1999 Supreme(SC) 862

Cases Referred (3)