serious injuries on his body/neck. Later on during investigation, the informant filed an application on 05.04.1994, alleging improper investigation and claimed two persons who had witnessed the occurrence or seen the accused persons moving with arms on the date of occurrence, had not been interrogated or their statements had not been recorded by the Investigating officer. Only thereafter on 13.04.1994, these two persons, Ram Mohan Sahu (P.W.1) and Chaman Singh (P.W.2) were produced before the court of learned Judicial Magistrate by the Investigating officer (P.W.18), where their statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. was recorded. Both the statements under Section 164 Cr.P.C. have been brought on record as Exhibit-C and Exhibit-17 by the defence and the prosecution. P.W.1, in his deposition during trial has surprisingly disowned certain vital statement made by him before the learned Judicial Magistrate under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. In his statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C., he categorically stated that after having seen the occurrence in the evening of 20.03.1994 while on return from Langi Market, he had hid himself in the house of in-laws, where he did not disclose the incidence to anyone as all of them have gone to sleep at 8 p.m. On the next morning, he along with Balbhadra Sahu, (informant) went to the place of occurrence and brought the dead-body to the house of the informant. Interestingly this part of his statement under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C., is completely denied by him during trial. His statements read in entirety at Paras 8, 9 and 14 in particular totally discredit his claim as a reliable eye-witness. At Paragraph-4 he has described his relationship with the informant and deceased/ informant's brother (deceased). Their grandfather, Ludu Saw are common. Informant and his brother are descendants from the line of Jetu Saw, S/o Ludu Saw while P.W.1 is descendant from the line of Delu Saw, S/o Ludu Saw. In such a close relationship, when both P.W.1 and the informant belong to the same village, it is unbelievable that the P.W.1 had any reason to conceal the occurrence seen by his own eye from the informant both of whom had lost cousin or a real brother. His statement at Paragraph-8 also belies his claim as an eye-witness and his statement made earlier under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C., where he had categorically narrated that he along with Balbhadra Sahu, informant had gone to the place of occurrence on the morning of 21.03.1996 and brought back the dead-body to the house. His further statement at Para 9 also dents his credibility as an eye-witness, as he has not narrated the incidence for 23
