23. From the narration of the evidence on record, what becomes clear is that Fazlu left his house with accused Shamsher. What is, however, extremely important to note is that though Fazlu left his house in the company of accused Shamsher, accused Shamsher was not the person last seen with Fazlu inasmuch as the undisputed evidence of PW 9 (Budhi Nath Singh) is that on 14.09.1985, (that is, the day Fazlu had disappeared), he (PW 9) had seen, at about 05:30 PM, not only accused Shamsher and Fazlu together, but they were in the company of Ram Chandra Mahto and one more person. This apart, though it has been alleged by PW 14 (Mujeebun Nisa), in her evidence, that accused Shamsher had disappeared from the village, the undisputed evidence of PW 3 (Abdul Sattar) is that Fazlu’s mother had come to him and asked him to find out whereabouts of Fazlu and, upon coming to know that accused Shamsher had taken away Fazlu on his bicycle, he (PW 3), while going to offer Namaz, asked accused Shamsher about Fazlu and accused Shamsher responded by saying that till Bariarpur, Fazlu went on bicycle with him and, then, Fazlu went away somewhere. This shows that notwithstanding the allegation made by PW14 that accused Shamsher, too, had disappeared and absconded, accused Shamsher was very much present, according to the prosecution’s evidence, in his village.
