BRAJENDRASINGH Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeals are directed against the judgment of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Bench at Indore, confirming the judgment of conviction and order of sentence of imposition of extreme penalty of death by the Trial Court.

(2.) The disaster that can flow from unchastity of a woman and the suspicions of a man upon the character of his wife cannot be more pathetically stated than the facts emerging from the present case. As per the case of the prosecution, a man suspecting his wife of having illicit relations with his neighbor, killed his three young children, namely, Varsha, Lokesh and Mayank, who were asleep, sprinkled kerosene oil on his wife and put her on fire. However, when called upon to make a statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, Cr.P.C.), the accused rendered the following explanation :

(3.) From the above statement, it is clear that the accused neither disputes the attempt to murder, nor the consequent death of his three young children and wife, Aradhna. What this Court has to examine, with reference to the evidence on record, is as to which of the two versions is correct and stands established beyond reasonable doubt, i.e., whether the case of the prosecution is to be accepted as proved beyond reasonable probability or whether the defence of the appellant is to be accepted by the Court.