Orissa High Court Upholds Conviction Of Dara Singh & Other Accused In 1999 Father Arul Doss Murder Case
Case: Dara Singh @ Rabindra Ku. Pal & Ors. v. State of Odisha
Coram: Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice Chittaranjan Dash
Case No.: CRLA No. 525 of 2007
Court Observation: “The charge as framed clearly indicates the manner of commission of the crime. As explained in Hamlet@ Sasi (supra) the common intention of four persons who came armed with lathis and committed the crime of killing father Arul Doss and burning the church has been clearly established. The two ingredients to attract the finding of the guilt for the substantive offences with which they have been charged, with the aid of Section 34 IPC, stands fully established.”
“It was not the case of the prosecution that there are other unnamed or unidentified persons other than the one who are charge-sheeted and faced trial. When the other co-accused persons faced trial and have been given benefit of doubt and have been acquitted, it would not be permissible to take the view that there must have been some other persons along with the appellant in causing injuries to the victim. In the facts and circumstances, it was as such not permissible to invoke Section 149 IPC.”
“A careful perusal of the evidence of PW-2 shows that he could identify each of the present Appellants. His evidence was cogent, clear and convincing. He clearly knew the aggressors as they had come earlier to the same place. The mere fact that a TI Parade was not conducted would not discredit the testimony of the said eye-witness.”
“…if the material on record sufficiently indicates that reasons for “gaining an enduring impression of the identity on the mind and memory of the witnesses” are available on record, the matter stands in a completely different perspective. This Court also stated that in such cases even non-holding of identification parade would not be fatal to the case of the prosecution.”
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Father Arul Doss Murder Case
