Budhadev Karmaskar vs State Of West Bengal

The facts have been set out in the impugned judgment and hence we are not repeating the same here except wherever necessary.

In the present case, the incident happened on 17th September, 1999 at about 9.15 p.m. The deceased Chayay Rani Pal alias Buri was living in a red light area and was a resident of Room No.8 of Premises No.19, Jogen Dutta Lane in Calcutta. She was evidently a sex worker. The appellant Budhadev kicked her with fists and legs, and she fell down on the floor. The appellant then caught her by her hair and banged her head against the floor and the wall several times which left the victim bleeding from her ear, nose and head. The incident was witnessed by four persons, Pw2-Abida, PW4- Maya, PW7-Asha and PW8-Parvati.

PW2-Abida has deposed that she saw the appellant- accused catching the victim by her hair and banging her head against the wall. The victim was profusely bleeding through her nose and mouth. On seeing this, Abida started shouting and then the accused pushed her and went down and fled away. PW8-Parvati saw the victim being mercilessly beaten by the -3- accused-appellant, and the same is the evidence of PW7-Asha. In the post mortem, as many as 11 injuries on the body of the victim were found, eight of which were on various parts of the face and forehead.

The police was informed about the incident over the telephone as is evident from the testimony of PW2 Abida. After the police arrived on the spot, sample of the blood spilled from the body of the victim was collected and photographs taken. The victim was brought by Asha Khatoon and others to the hospital where she was found 'dead on arrival'. Blood was oozing out from her ear and nostril. There was swelling on the left eyeball and left eyebrow. Thus, the medical evidence corroborates the ocular testimony.

The injuries above-mentioned show the brutality of -5- the crime. The head of the deceased was battered again and again in a hideous and barbaric manner.

The trial Court has rightly convicted the appellant under Section 302 IPC and sentenced him to life imprisonment and the High Court has not committed any error in upholding the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial Court.

We find no reason to disbelieve the testimony of the eye witnesses in this case, namely, PW2, PW7 and PW8 which corroborates the medical evidence. The appellant-accused has committed murder in a brutal manner of a helpless women and deserves no sympathy from this Court.

For the reasons given above, this appeal is dismissed.

Although we have dismissed this Appeal, we strongly feel that the Central and the State Governments through Social Welfare Boards should prepare schemes for rehabilitation all over the country for physically and sexually abused women commonly known as prostitutes as we are of the view that the prostitutes also have a right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India since they are also human beings and their problems also need to be addressed.

Hence, we direct the Central and the State Governments to prepare schemes for giving technical/vocational training to sex workers and sexually abused women in all cities in India. The schemes should mention in detail who will give the technical/vocational training and in what manner they can be rehabilitated and settled by offering them employment. For instance, if a technical training is for some craft like sewing garments, etc. then some arrangements should also be made for providing a market for such garments, otherwise they will remain unsold and unused, and consequently the women will not be able to feed herself.

We propose to have the response of the Centre and the States in this regard and hence the case shall be listed before us again on 04.05.2011 to be taken up as first case on which date the first compliance report indicating therein the first steps taken by the Central and the State Governments in this regard shall be submitted.

Issue notice to the Central Government and all the State Governments which will also file responses by the date fixed for hearing.