Criminal Appeal No. – 461 of 2009
CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
Date of Judgement: 27th September 2019
Bench: Hon’ble Thottathil B. J., Hon’ble Arijit Banerjee J.
Relevant Acts/Sections:
- Section 302 IPC (Punishment for Murder)
- Section 376 IPC (Punishment for Rape)
- Section 106 IEA (Burden of proving fact especially within knowledge)
Branch: Forensic Physics
Backstory
On 22nd June 2008 at around 04:00 P.M., Jyotsna Mallick (victim) aged 17 years, resident of village Janipur, District-North 24 Parganas, went to collect flowers of “Potol” (pointed gourd). But she did not return. At around 07:00 P.M., the complainant, Basudeb Rakshit and Sarojit Mondal went out in search of Jyotsna Mallick. They found her dead, strangulated with her ‘orna’, her churidar pant lying by her side, inner pant lying on her belly, in the mestha field of Murari Roy. Jyotsna Mallick was raped and then strangulated to death by her tormentor between 04:00 to 07:00 P.M. After 13 days of the incident, the police of Rajarhat arrested the accused.
On the same day 22nd June 2008 at around 05:00 to 05:30 P.M., Ramesh Mallick uncle of the victim, saw that Som Shankar (accused) was trying to hide from him; he questioned the accused, but he did not reply. Bina Mondal stated that she saw Som Shankar near the P.O. he was roaming. Sunita Mondal heard the groaning sound coming from the P.O. Fatema Gazi also saw the Som Shankar near the P.O., and she stated that 2 years ago Som Shankar tried to rape her and she was saved by Haran Sardar Co-villager. The IO visited the crime scene and seized chappal, clothes and three buttons, and also seized hair, blood, nail, vaginal swab the same forwarded to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.
Postmortem Report
On 23rd June 2008 at around 01:10 P.M., Dr. Dipak Maitra conducted the post-mortem of Jyotsna Mallick dead body. On examination he had found that blackish ecchymoses present over the right side of the neck, a scratch mark at the right elbow, Vulva labia mejora was blood-stained and hymen was ruptured, in front of neck semi-circular ligature marks was present. According to him, death was caused due to respiratory failure because of asphyxia caused because of strangulation following rape, antemortem, and homicidal.
Forensic Report
On 19th January 2009, Dr. S. Mukeherjee, Assistant Director Physics Division, Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata stated that two buttons (one collar button and another spare button) marked as ‘B’ and the buttons in the envelope marked ‘D’. The control buttons Marked ‘B’ are similar to the buttons marked ‘D’, regarding measurements of various dimensions, designs, and character of the word ‘Cotton’, and the Forensic Report no. 167 was issued. Three buttons recovered from the crime scene and a shirt seized from the Som Shankar (accused) house was matched.
Judgement
Som Shankar (accused) convicted under Section 376 and 302 IPC, rigorous imprisonment for 10 years with fine Rs. 1,000/-.