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Showing contexts for: impersonation in Aloke Nath Dutta & Ors vs State Of West Bengal on 12 December, 2006Matching Fragments
Prosecution story is that the deceased was not in favour of sale of the said property. The transactions with regard to the sale of the said property, in favour of the said Nandlal Singh and Arunmoy Bose, however, were being conducted, as if Biswanath was a party thereto. Appellant Mrinal Dutta is said to have been impersonating Biswanath and singed several documents in his name.
Aloke Nath absented himself from duty from 7.00 p.m. on 22.01.1994 to 28.01.1994, as disclosed by his colleagues Sahadev Mondal (PW-33), Ananta KumarThanedar (PW-34), and Biman Ghosh Dastidar (PW-35).
Criminal Conspiracy :
Criminal conspiracy, if any, arose out of the greed of Aloke Nath. He needed money to satisfy his bad habits. A situation came to such a pass that he had to negotiate with two persons for sale of the house simultaneously. He had taken money from both the intending purchasers. Apparently, with a view to extract money from the said two purchasers, he pretended, that he and the deceased were the only owners of the house. The deceased might not have been willing to sell the house, but he might not have also been aware of the transactions. Aloke Nath might have intended to keep him in dark and swallow the entire amount of consideration. His other brothers and sisters had also not been taken into confidence. Indisputably, they were on litigating terms with the deceased and Appellant Aloke Nath. Assistance of Mrinal Dutta in impersonating Biswanath was obtained by Aloke Nath. He was paid a sum of Rs.5,000/- for the same. He was impersonating Biswanath and had been signing, executing documents and posing himself as such at Aloke Nath's instance.
We may assume that other Appellants conspired with Aloke Nath for selling the house. Mrinal Dutta evidently had signed the blank papers. He purported to have executed some documents impersonating Biswanath. But the question which must be posed and answered would be as to whether they were parties to a bigger conspiracy of murder. Signing of certain documents, impersonation of Biswanath by Mrinal Dutta or the other Appellants' signing the said documents as witnesses, per se would not lead to the conclusion that at any point of time they had agreed with Aloke Nath that Biswanath should be eliminated.
RETRACTED JUDICIAL CONFESSION :
We may notice that till the purported judicial confession of Mrinal Dutta was recorded by PW-43, evidences collected during investigation were only suggestive of the fact that some person(s) had executed documents impersonating Biswanath. In fact the witnesses did not recognize Mrinal Dutta to be impersonating Biswanath. It was expected of the Investigating Authority to put Mrinal Dutta on test identification parade to prove the charge of impersonation of Biswanath. Mrinal Dutta was arrested along with other accused on 07.03.1994. An application for test identification parade for Aloke Nath was filed on 09.03.1994. No such prayer was made by the prosecution for Mrinal Dutta. On 16.03.1994 he had been remanded to police custody. A prayer was made by the Investigating Officer for further police custody before the ACM on 16.03.1994. Consequently he had been remanded till 19.03.1994. Before we examine the legal implications in regard to recording the judicial confession, we may notice the following facts. He had been produced before the Magistrate (PW-43) straightaway from police custody. He was asked to be sent to judicial custody for self introspection. He, however, was taken out from Presidency Jail at 10.30 A.M.. on 21.03.1994. Admittedly, he had been produced before the Magistrate at 1.00 p.m. Albeit a little later, a complaint was made by Mrinal Dutta, that before he had been produced before the Magistrate he was taken to the Alipore Police Station and tortured. It is true, as has been submitted by Mr. Ahmad, that although he had named the Police Inspector who allegedly tortured him, as would appear from his examination under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, but the said Police Inspector has not been cross-examined on the said point, but the fact remains that the confession stood retracted and, thus, we have no option but to consider the legal aspect thereof having regard to the fact situation obtaining herein.