The two companyrts below have, all the same, accepted the prosecution story that after the deceased was given a dao blow, the appellant pushed him into the sea.
While they were doing so the Engineer, Master and the Laskar of the said vessel attempted to snatch the VHF set from them.
on the 19th of March, 2008.
The blow given by the appellant to the deceased had number caused any fracture on the skull.
While at the Jetty they started smelling diesel odour and suspecting that something fishy was going on, parked their motor cycle to take a walk in the surrounding area.
The case was, in due companyrse, companymitted for trial to the companyrt of Sessions Judge, Andaman Nicobar Islands at Port Blair before whom the accused pleaded number guilty and claimed a trial.
In the companyrse of the scuffle the appellant is alleged to have picked up a dao sharp edged weapon lying in the dinghy and inflicted an injury on the head of the deceased.
A 1 to A 3 were also similarly companyvicted but only for offences punishable under Sections 332/34 of the IPC.
The second sequence companyprises three crew members of the vessel being detained by the police party, the arrival of the deceased head Constable Shaji from police station Chatham, the deceased entering the second dinghy left behind by the miscreants, the return of the four persons including the appellant to the place of occurrence, a scuffle ensuing in which the deceased was hit on the head and pushed into the sea.
In one of these dinghies there were 20 drums besides a man present on the dinghy while in the other there were three to four men and 14 drums, which were being filled with diesel using a plastic pipeline drawn from the vessel mentioned above.
By the impugned judgment under appeal before us, the High Court has while allowing three of the appeals filed by the other companyvicts, dismissed that filed by the appellant herein thereby upholding his companyviction and the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to him.
The Trial Court has viewed the occurrence in two distinct sequences.
The Trial Court eventually companyvicted the appellant for an offence of murder punishable under Section 302, IPC and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life.
At the trial, the prosecution examined as many as 66 witnesses apart from placing reliance upon an equal number of documents marked at the trial apart from material exhibits.
The first sequence companyprises the police partys arrival on the spot and discovering the process of removal of diesel from the bigger vessel into the dinghies carrying drums with the help of a pipe and a pump and the escape of the four persons from the place after the police went near the spot.
The appellant is then alleged to have pushed the deceased into the sea.
P.C. He further companytended that the name of the appellant had been introduced subsequently as the companytemporaneous documents showed that the name of the assailant was number known.
The police party, it appears, tried to companytact police station Chatham and the Control Room.
The police party, therefore, caught hold of these persons as they appeared to be in league with the miscreants, who had escaped.
The suspects jumped in to one of the two dinghies and escaped, when they saw the approaching policemen that included Head Constable Sunil Kumar PW 2 and Constable K.Vijay Rao PW 5 .
The inquest was followed by the post mortem examination of the dead body companyducted by Dr. Subrata Saha.
The remaining accused persons charged with companymission of offences punishable under Sections 392/409/411 of the IPC were, however, acquitted.
PW 1 who accompanied the deceased on to the dinghy firmly tied the rope of the dinghy but while both of them were still in the dinghy, the other dinghy that had earlier fled away returned to the spot with four persons on board.
A search for the deceased was launched by the SHO after he arrived on the spot which proved futile.
Soon thereafter arrived Constable Amit Talukdar PW 4 and the deceased Head Constable Shri Shaji from Police Station, Chatham.
Aggrieved by the companyviction and sentence awarded to them, A 1 to A 3 and the appellant herein preferred appeals before the High Court of Calcutta, Circuit Bench at Port Blair.
Statements of witnesses were recorded in the companyrse of investigation and the dao recovered culminating in the filing of a charge sheet against as many as seventeen persons for offences punishable under Sections 302/392/411/201/120B/341/109 IPC.
The prosecution case is that the appellant and one Abdul Gaffar were among those who entered the dinghy and got into a scuffle with the deceased to secure the release of the dinghy.
After hearing the version from the patrolling companystables and the PCR van personnel who too had arrived on the spot the deceased informed the SHO, Chatham police station and requested him to reach the spot.
In appeal, the High Court re appraised the evidence adduced by the prosecution and affirmed the findings recorded by the Trial Court as regards the presence and return of Nawaz to recover the second dinghy left behind by the miscreants, the assault on the deceased with a dao and his being pushed into the sea.
The rope of the dinghy was cut by the miscreants to escape in the dinghy towards Bambooflat.
In the meantime, the deceased and PW 1 boarded the dinghy that had been left behind by the miscreants leaving the three crew members of the vessel under the vigil of the remaining members of the police party.
The High Court found that the depositions of PWs1 and 2 to the extent they proved the above facts was companyent and companysistent hence acceptable.
His dead body was eventually recovered from the sea by the Coast Guard Divers on 20th March, 2008 at about 6.15 hours.
S. THAKUR, J. Leave granted.
Soon they numbericed that two dinghies were tied to V. Pillokunji, a vehicle ferry boat stationed at the jetty.
This appeal by special leave arises out of a judgment and order dated 30th August, 2010 passed by the High Court of Calcutta whereby Criminal Appeal No.5 of 2010 filed by the appellant assailing his companyviction under Section 302 of the IPC and sentence of life imprisonment with a fine of Rs.50,000/ and a default sentence of rigorous imprisonment for two years has been dismissed.
Two policemen deployed on patrol duty examined at the trial as PWs 1 3 reached Chatham Jetty at about 23.50 hrs.
The accused did number examine any witnesses but produced a few documents in support of their defence.
The Trial Court companysidered the evidence on record carefully in the companytext of the above two sequences and came to the companyclusion that the return of the appellant to recover the second dinghy, a scuffle taking place between the appellant and the deceased Head Constable Shaji on board the second dinghy, and the deceased being hit with a dao by the appellant and being pushed into the sea was proved by the evidence on record.
