NARAYAN Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur upholding the conviction of the appellant for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the IPC) and confirmed the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by learned Additional District and Sessions Judge, Fast Track, Udaipur.

(3.) Background facts in a nutshell are as follows : An unknown dead body was found in an iron barrel drum at a bus-stand, Unjha. It is alleged that on 16.10.1995 at the bus-stand, Unjha some unknown person hired a handcart of one Malla and instructed the cartman to carry the barrel drum to the Railway Station and, in the meantime, he assured to reach there. But, the said unknown person did not reach at the railway station and, ultimately, the cart owner Malla brought back the said barrel drum to bus-stand. In the evening the barrel drum began to emit bad smell and, therefore, information was given at the police post. The police opened the barrel drum and found therein the corpse of Mst. Hunji. Whereabouts of the dead body were not known and a photo was published in the newspaper in pursuance of which Babu Meena (PW6) and Chandulal (PW20) came and identified the dead body to be of their sister Hunji, who was living with appellant Narayan as his wife at Kotara. The Unjha police registered the case and since information was given by way of statements of Babu Meena and Chandulal and other relatives of the deceased that the incident took place at Kotara, through the Superintendent of police, the file of the case was sent for investigation to the Police Station, Kotara where regular FIR was registered at No.136/95 under Sections 302 and 201 IPC. Thereafter the investigation commenced. Charge sheet was filed after investigation. As the accused pleaded innocence, trial was held. As the prosecution version rested on circumstantial evidence, the trial court referred to various circumstances to come to the conclusion that the accused was guilty of the charged offences. Accordingly, the conviction and sentence were recorded. The appeal as noted above was preferred before the High Court. The primary stand was that the circumstances highlighted by the prosecution do not lead unerringly to the guilt of the accused. The High Court did not find any substance in the plea and as noted above the same was dismissed.