'Prays To God & Reads Gita Regularly': Orissa HC Commutes Death Sentence Of Man Convicted Of Double Murder, Killing Pregnant Lady's Foetus

The Orissa High Court has commuted the sentence of death imposed by the Sessions Court on a man for not only committing murder of two random people at two different places, but also causing grievous hurt to two other people, and attempting to murder a pregnant lady by stabbing her repeatedly and inserting a 'pastry-roller' inside her private part which ultimately caused death of the foetus.

While commuting the capital punishment, the Division Bench of Justice Bibhu Prasad Routray and Justice Chittaranjan Dash observed –

“Nothing on his conduct as per the report of the jail authority would constitute an aggravating factor against him to confirm the death sentence. 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.”

Case Background

In the intervening night of 16/17^th January 2019, the appellant/condemned prisoner Niranjan Mallik gave effect to the horrendous trail of his barbaric acts spanning between 2 AM till early morning at different places of Odagaon town in the district of Nayagarh. In entirety, the appellant committed murder of two persons namely Lochan Sethi (D-1) and Badani Pradhan (D-2), attempted to murder Sulochana Pradhan and caused grievous hurt to two other persons namely Amulya Barik and Dambaru.

While Lochan was doing his night duty as watchman in the vegetable market, the appellant all of a sudden appeared with a piece of wooden plank and suddenly hit on his head and other parts of the body causing bleeding injury and ultimately, his death. When another watchman rushed towards the spot, he fled away.

After some time, when deceased Badani was sweeping the front portion of her house, the appellant suddenly reached there scaling the wall at around 3:00 AM and dealt a blow on her head. The deceased fell down in a pool of blood and died at the spot. Hearing her shout, her daughter Sulochana, who was bathing nearby, rushed shouting at the appellant.

The appellant assaulted Sulochana, who was pregnant and was carrying seven-month-old foetus, with the same wooden plank on her head and other parts of the body causing bleeding injuries and she fell down at the spot in a pool of blood. When she was about to lose her sense, the appellant stabbed her multiple times and inserted a 'Belana Kathi' (pastry-roller) into her vagina.

Hearing the scream of mother and daughter, some passersby entered inside the premises climbing up the wall and seeing them the appellant immediately fled away wearing a 'ladies' night gown' kept outside.

He did not stop there and after some time, when Amulya Barik, an elderly woman, was going to temple in the early morning, the appellant assaulted her randomly on her head and other parts of the body. Due to the severe assault, she fell down on road with bleeding injuries.

Finally, he proceeded and saw other injured named Dambaru opening his shop. He proceeded towards him and raised the wooden plank to assault him, but the injured instantly protested the same. There was a tussle between the appellant and injured, in the course of which the injured snatched the wooden plank from the hands of the convict. Being violently reactive, the appellant bit the left-hand little finger of the injured so severely that the tip of finger was separated from the rest part of the finger, resulting severe bleeding injury.

Upon completion of investigation, the charge-sheet was filed against the appellant. The Additional Sessions Judge, Odagaon, who conducted the trial, found the appellant guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon) and 458 (lurking house trespass after preparation of assault) of the IPC. Apart from other sentences, he was sentenced to the extreme sentence of death for commission of offence under Section 302 of IPC, i.e. double murder.

The matter was then submitted by the trial Court to High Court under Section 366, CrPC for confirmation of death sentence. The appellant also filed a jail criminal appeal assailing the conviction and sentence. Both the cases were tagged and heard together.

Appellant is author of the crimes

The Court was certain from the statements of the eye-witnesses and post-occurrence witnesses, along with the medical evidence that the deaths of the deceased persons were homicidal in nature. Evidence elicited from the testimonies of eye-witnesses were analysed, which led to an irresistible conclusion that the appellant is the author of the crime.

The Bench gave much emphasis to the statements of Sulochana, the pregnant lady who is an injured witness in the case. She stated while her mother was sweeping the front area of their house, the appellant fatally attacked her. Hearing her screams, when she went to the spot, she was also attacked by the convict on her head. Before she lost her sense, she could feel getting stabbed on her belly multiple times with a knife. He also inserted a pastry-roller inside her vagina.

“A foreign body was also detected inserted to her vagina. Not only this but one iron rod of length of 30 cm and broken knife of length of 10 cm along with one broken tooth was recovered from the body of Sulochana during her operation in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, where she was referred to for treatment, as per the seizure list prepared under Ext.P-26 by the Investigating Officer. Sulochana being the injured her statement carries much credence with regard to nature of assault and the author thereof,” the Court also observed.

It was also held that assaults made on Sulochana and Amuli by means of wooden plank and other weapons resulting in different injuries on their persons attract offence under Section 326, IPC along with the offence of attempt to murder. Furthermore, the entry of the appellant into the campus of residence of Sulochana by scaling over the wall makes out the offence punishable under Section 458, IPC.

Plea of insanity untenable

The plea of insanity/unsoundness of mind was raised in the defence of the appellant. It was argued that his acts of wearing ladies' night gown and proceeding on a spree of killings bereft of any motive is sufficient to show lack of sanity and understanding regarding nature of the acts he committed.

However, the Court was not convinced to accept such a plea since the appellant acted like a normal person throughout the trial and he gave sane answers to the questions put to him under Section 313 of the CrPC after understanding the same.

“With regard to the submission that he wore the lady nightgown is a circumstance to suggest his mental instability is not accepted by this Court for the reason that the same also indicates the clever mind of convict to get rid of the spot unidentified…. A close circumspection of the events with reference to the conduct of convict reveals his preparedness and swift escape from the scene,” it added.

Reformation can't be ruled out

After coming to the conclusion that the appellant has committed the crimes with required mens rea, the question which cropped up for consideration was whether the extreme sentence of death is justified in the factual circumstances. The Court reiterated the principles governing the award of death penalty as has been laid down by several judgments of the Apex Court including Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980).

Having regard for the directions issued by the Supreme Court in Sundar @ Sundarrajan v. State by Inspector of Police, 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 217, the Court requisitioned medical reports along with reports on behavioural pattern of the appellant inside jail as well as his past-life. The affidavit received from the Senior Superintendent of Jail revealed that he is having a stable psychological condition.

“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.”

Apart from the aforesaid, the Court also recorded the following peculiar findings of the Jail Superintendent to fortify the mitigating factors in his favour –

“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.”

Taking into consideration the report of the jail authority in entirety, the Court was of the opinion that there is a possibility of the convict being reformed and rehabilitated.

“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 ordered.

Case Title: State of Odisha v. Niranjan Mallik & tagged appeal

Case No: DSREF No. 02 of 2024 & JCRLA No. 62 of 2024

Date of Judgment: August 12, 2025

Counsel for the Appellant/Condemned Prisoner: Mr. J.K. Panda, Amicus Curiae

Counsel for the State: Mr. S. Mohanty, Additional Government Advocate

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 107

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