SHANTI DEVI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first accused is the appellant. The challenge is to the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur dated 16.02.2005 passed in Criminal Appeal No.517 of 2002. Altogether four accused were involved in the crime. The Trial Court convicted the appellant for offences under Sections 302 and 201 of IPC while the other three accused were found guilty for offence under Section 201 of IPC alone. The appellant was imposed with the punishment of sentence for life for the offence under Section 302 of IPC apart from a fine of Rs.100/- and in default for further one month rigorous imprisonment, for the offence under Section 201 of IPC appellant was imposed with the rigorous imprisonment for five years along with the fine of Rs.100/- and in default of the payment of fine to undergo one more month rigorous imprisonment. The other three accused were awarded rigorous imprisonment for five years each and a fine of Rs.100/- and in default of the payment of fine to undergo further period of rigorous imprisonment for one month. The sentences awarded against the appellants were directed to run concurrently. The Division Bench while upholding the conviction and sentence imposed on the appellant for the offence under Section 302 of IPC modified the punishment so far as it related to be one under Section 201 of IPC to the effect that the period already undergone would be sufficient in the interest of justice. Similarly, in respect of other three accused also while confirming the conviction against them under Section 201 of IPC, the substantive sentence was modified to be one which was already undergone by them. Aggrieved against the same appellant preferred this appeal.

(2.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the case of the prosecution as projected before the Sessions Trial was that the father of P.W.2 went to the house of the appellant on 22.08.1997, that he had a sum of Rs.300/- with him on that day, that he frequently used to visit the house of the appellant and that appellant used to call him as her brother. According to P.W.2, after his father, the deceased Om Prakash went to the house of the appellant on 22.08.1997 he did not return back. P.W.2 went to the house of the appellant thrice and the appellant informed him that his father, the deceased, was entangled in a case of Charas and that she is taking every effort to get him released. Subsequently, on 01.09.1997 the Postman delivered a letter in his house which was purportedly in the hand- writing of Accused No.3 (A-3), the son of the appellant, and that on that very day appellant visited the residence of P.W.2 and asked for a sum of Rs.5000/- stating that money was required in order to enable her to get his father released from the criminal complaint. Believing her words P.W.2 stated to have borrowed a sum of Rs.5000/- from P.W.13 Tersem Ram and gave it to her.

(3.) In the above stated background P.W.2 lodged a complaint with Gharsana Police Station which was registered as F.I.R. No.535/1997 under Exhibit P-2. P.W.20, Investigating Officer, arrested the appellant and three accused persons, namely, Maniram, Shankar Lal and Jagdish. Based on the admissible portion of the said statement of the appellant the body of the deceased Om Prakash was recovered from a place near her house. The body was found buried in that place. Postmortem was conducted on the dead body. Two photographs were also seized during the course of investigation. The hand- writing of A-3 Jagdish was compared. Based on the final report, charges were framed against the appellant and other accused for offences under Sections 302 of IPC read with Section 302/120-B, 364, 364/120-B and 201 of IPC. The accused having denied the charges, case went into trial and 24 witnesses were examined on the side of the prosecution apart from 50 documents marked and 14 articles were produced. On the side of the defence one witness was examined and eight documents were marked.