BALARAM Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The present appeal is against the concurrent finding of guilt under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 against the appellant on the charge of committing murder of his brother's wife - Bhagen Bai (the deceased). The appellant has been imposed punishment by the Trial Court (the Second Additional Sessions Judge, Surajpur, Chhattisgarh) of life imprisonment along with fine of Rs.1000.00 (Rupees thousand only), latter coupled with default imprisonment for two months. The High te: 202209.20 :43:41 1ST ason: Court dismissed his appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence. Conviction is based on circumstantial evidence and the prosecution has not produced any eyewitness. The incident occurred on 16/9/1999 at about 05.30p.m at village Kandrai under Jainagar police station. She was admitted to the district hospital but her relatives got her discharged. The reason for this appears to be that they were not able to afford her treatment costs. Ultimately, she succumbed to her injuries on 24/10/1999.

(3.) Prosecution version is that the appellant had entered the house where the deceased was residing and killed her by striking on her head with a tangi. Opinion of the autopsy surgeon attributed her death to coma which appeared from the brain injury and its complexities. Altogether 15 witnesses were examined. In this order, however, we shall refer to the depositions of those witnesses only, whose depositions we consider necessary for adjudication of this appeal. The Trial Court had believed the prosecution story, which was founded on two factors. On analysis of evidence, which were depositions of witnesses, the Trial Court found that presence of the appellant at the place of occurrence was seen. The other factor was recovery of a tangi on the basis of the statement of the appellant, which was found to be weapon of assault. The High Court also confirmed the said finding.