BHUBANESWAR: If the eye-witnesses clinched the case for the prosecution in the high-profile Biranchi Das murder case, gangster Raja Acharya’s accomplice Akshaya Behera alias Chagala only made it easier for the team.
In his verdict, Fast- Track Court No III Judge Bibekananda Das observed that it is the consensus statement of the eye-witnesses that they had seen Raja firing three shots at the judo coach from his revolver. When he fired the third shot, electricity supply went off.
There were five eyewitnesses from prosecution’s side, and they stated that they knew the two accused much before the incident since they had come to the judo hall a number of times to meet Biranchi.
“Identities of accused in this case are well established from their evidence as well as from the evidence of other witnesses,” the judgement stated. Another strong circumstance against Raja and Chagala was that both had absconded after the incident.
Raja was in Goa where he gave himself up before the Panaji Police while Chagala appeared at Bhopal where he surrendered before a TV channel reporter and made an extrajudicial confession. It is the extra-judicial confession of Chagala which the court said can form the basis of conviction.
On April 22, 2008, Chagala appeared on a private TV channel and made the confession. “Chagala had made extra-judicial confession about his involvement in the case and also requested them (TV reporters) to save him. Absolutely, there is nothing on record to show that he made such extrajudicial confession under any kind of threat, coercion or influence,” the court said.
He, on his own volition, asked the ETV personnel to come to the railway station and surrendered before them.
Sunil Tiwari, the ETV journalist, the court said is a disinterested witness, unbiased and was also not inimical to the accused. His evidence was clear and unambiguous and unmistakably went to show that Chagala was involved in the murder.
Referring to the defence’s contention that extra-judicial confession is of weak nature and cannot by itself be held to be sufficient for recording a judgement of conviction, the court cited the Purandar Khimani VS State of Orissa case of 2010 and said it has been held that no court should start with a presumption that extra-judicial confession is a weak evidence.
Chagala’s was a voluntary extra- judicial confession and can be accepted and form the basis of a conviction, it added.
Similarly, defence’s contention that eye-witnesses were either relatives of Biranchi or members of the judo hall was also dealt with by the court which said evidence of relatives or interested witnesses should not be thrown out only on the ground that they are related to the deceased. “So far as the acceptability of their evidence is concerned, they have stated the incident in detail and in spite of elaborate cross-examination, no noticeable or major infirmity is found,” the judgement said.