Prays To God & Reads Gita Regularly: Orissa High Court Commutes Death Sentence Of Man Convicted For Murder Of 2 Persons & A Foetus

The Orissa High Court has commuted the death sentence of a man who was convicted for murder of two persons and a pregnant woman’s foetus in the year 2019.

A Death Reference along with a Criminal Appeal arose out of the Judgment convicting the said man for the offence under Sections 302, 307, 325, 326, and 458 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC).

A Division Bench comprising Justice B.P. Routray and Justice Chittaranjan Dash observed, “According to the report of the medical officer of the jail, the behavior and attitude of the convict towards other inmates and staff is good and he performs daily routine work in a normal manner. Presently his health condition is good and stable and as per advice of the team of doctors he is taking regular medicines for bipolar disorder. … So in the opinion of the Senior Superintendent of Circle Jail, Berhampur the convict’s behavior is quite normal. He prays to God and reads Holy Gita regularly and other daily newspapers and his behavior towards others is very normal.”

The Bench said that as per the medical report submitted by the team of doctors, the convict is having stable psychological condition without any adversity observed in his conduct.

AGA S. Mohanty appeared for the Appellant while Amicus Curiae J.K. Panda appeared for the Respondent.

Case Background

As per the prosecution case, the convict as well as all the victims were residents of same area. Allegedly, in a complete sequence, the convict committed murder of two persons namely, Lochan Sethi (male) and Badani Pradhan (female) and injured three more persons namely, Sulochana Pradhan (female), Amulya Barik (female) and Dambaru (male). The deceased, Lochan, was working as a Night Watchman in the vegetable market. On the day of the incident, while he was performing his night duty, the convict all of a sudden appeared with a piece of wooden plank and suddenly hit on his head and other parts of the body. It was further alleged that after some time, when deceased Badani was sweeping front portion of the house, the convict suddenly appeared there scaling the wall at around 3:00 PM and dealt a blow on her head.

The deceased fell in a pool of blood and died at the spot. Hearing her shout, her daughter Sulochana, who was bathing nearby, rushed shouting at the convict. Allegedly, she was also not spared and the convict assaulted her with the same wooden plank on her head and other parts of the body, as a result of which she also fell down at the spot in a pull of blood. He stabbed her multiple times and inserted a pastry roller (Belena Kathi) into her private part, and at that time she was pregnant carrying foetus of around seven months. Thus, commission of two murders, one attempt to murder and two grievous hurts with lurking house trespass were charged against the convict under different heads prescribed under IPC. He was sentenced to death by the Trial Court along with a fine of Rs. 50,000/-. Hence, the case was before the High Court.

Reasoning

The High Court in the above context of the case, remarked, “As per the report submitted, the father of the convict was a farmer and the convict initially assisted his father in cultivation. He has read up to Class-X and in the year 1999 he moved to Surat in Gujurat and worked there in a spinning mill as a labourer to earn good money. In the year 2004 the Appellant married and has been blessed with two children but he did not pull well with the wife in marital life and again went to Surat. He returned after some days from Surat and started his business in the locality of selling biometric bracelets and was earning good profit. But he left that business and started selling Chhenapoda (Baked Sweet Paneer) at Jamsedpur, Jharkhand and met with an accident in the year 2012. Thereafter his economic condition became poor and he returned to village where he started selling different sweets in and around the nearby locality.”

The Court noted that during last part of 2016 he had some psychiatric problems and underwent treatment at MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur and after recovery there-from he again started his business in 2018 staying in his village under Odagaon Police Station.

“As per the report everyone in the village spoke well of him and no adverse report is there against the convict. His behavior towards the public was quite cordial and impressive without having any animosity in the village or outside. He has no criminal antecedent before the present incident. Presently his wife is staying at Bhubaneswar with children and maintaining her livelihood by working as a maid servant. According to the wife of convict he used to take alcohol during night hours and she also supported the fact of psychiatric treatment of the convict at MKCG Medical College and Hospital and his recovery in the year 2018 and thereafter he discontinued the medicines due to financial issues”, it further said.

The Court observed that the convict’s short term and long-term memory is intact excluding the morbidity period where he was not able to remember the past events of psychotic episode and his social and personal judgment are intact and no abnormality is detected upon his examination.

“It is true that the criminal is also a human being and is entitled to a life of dignity notwithstanding his crime. However, it is for the prosecution and the court to determine whether such a person can be reformed and rehabilitated. As to aggravating factors in the case at hand, commission of murder of two persons with such brutality to the lady deceased along with injuries to others is undoubtedly a significant aggravating factor where the enormity of crime and number of victims are critical factors. The emotional and psychological impacts on the families of the deceased persons also constitute an aggravating factor”, it also noted.

Conclusion

Furthermore, the Court reiterated that the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the convict is an important factor which has to be taken into account as a mitigating circumstance before sentencing him to death.

“Upon thorough examination of socio-economic background of the convict in the present case, it appears that he hails from the poor economic strata of society without having any criminal antecedent and adverse report against his conduct. As per the report of the Jail authority submitted before this court he is cordial to others and no one spoke evil of him in his village, his conduct inside the jail is normal and cordial to other inmates. Nothing on his conduct as per the report of the jail authority would constitute an aggravating factor against him to confirm the death sentence”, it added.

The Court was of the view that regardless of the heinous of crime committed by him, his conduct inside jail is quite satisfactory as per the report of the Superintendent of Jail and he had also no other antecedent than the present one to be counted against him to justify his death sentence.

“He was and is a normal man except committing the offence prior to and after the occurrence. Taking into consideration of the report of the jail authority in entirety, it cannot be said that there is no possibility of the convict being reformed and rehabilitated, foreclosing the alternative of lesser sentence. We are therefore inclined to convert the sentence imposed on the Appellant from death to life, but taking note of the severity of the offences including murder of two persons we are of the view that the convict deserves life imprisonment for rest of his life”, it concluded.

Accordingly, the High Court disposed of the Death Reference and Appeal, and commuted the death sentence of the convict.

Cause Title- State of Odisha v. Niranjan Mallik (Case Number: DSREF No.2 of 2024 and JCRLA No.62 of 2024)

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