REGISTRAR GENERAL HIGH COURT Vs. PRAKASH JADAV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE sole accused Prakash Jadav faced a trial before the Trial court for the offences punishable under sections 302, 392 and 201 of IPC for having committed the murder of a child by name akhila, with the intention of robbing the ornaments, such as, gold ear rings and silver leg chains, which were worn by the said child and committed robbery by snatching the gold ear rings and silver leg chains, which were worn by the child and that further, after committing the robbery and murder kept the dead body of the child Akhila in a plastic bag, carried it in a suit case, thereafter, by selling away the gold ear rings and silver leg chains at Davanagere, having purchased a gunny bag, put the plastic bag containing the dead body of the child into the gunny bag and with an intention of causing disappearance of the evidence, kept the said gunny bag containing the dead body of the child in a railway compartment at davanagere Railway Station in the Inter-city train and has tried to cause the disappearance of the evidence of murder and robbery, so as to screen himself from legal punishment and thereby, committed the above said offences. At the conclusion of the trial, the trial Court on consideration of the entire material placed on record and after hearing the submissions on both sides, has convicted the accused on all the three counts for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 392 and 201 of IPC. For the offence under Section 302 of IPC, the Trial Court has sentenced the accused with the extreme penalty of death sentence. The Trial Court has also imposed separate sentences against the accused for the other offences. Since the trial Court has passed a sentence of death against the accused, the proceedings have been submitted to this Court under Section 366 of Cr. P. C. for the confirmation of a sentence of death passed against the accused. Besides the reference made by the Trial court under Section 366 of Cr. P. C. , the convicted accused has also preferred an appeal challenging the conviction and sentence passed against him by the Trial Court.

(2.) THE reference made by the Trial Court under Section 366 of Cr. P. C. and the appeal filed by the convicted accused under Section 374 of Cr. P. C. are both taken up together for consideration. They have been heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment.

(3.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is the accused was a mason by profession. He was residing in a house situated in vijayanagar Extension in Harihara Town along with his wife and a male child. The wife of the accused used to work as roti maker in the house of the other persons from morning till evening and she used to take her male child along with her to the place of work. The deceased is one Akhila, who was a female child aged about 2 or 3 years at the time of her death. The parents of the deceased are P. W. 2- Nagaraj and P. W. 3 smt. Savithramma. During the relevant time of this incident, they were both employed at davanagere. P. W. 9 Smt. Sharadamma is the grandmother of the deceased child. Since both the parents of the deceased child were employed at Davanagere and there was no other person to look after the deceased child at their house, they had left the said child in the house of its grandmother Smt. Sharadamma-P. W. 9 situated in the same locality as that of the accused in Harihara town. In fact, the house of the accused was just adjoining to the house of Smt. Sharadamma P. W. 9 and the same was separated only by a lane. P. W. 9 Smt. Sharadamma, the grandmother of the deceased child, with whom the child was living during the relevant time of this incident, was a neighbour of the accused. They had a close acquaintance with each other. The deceased child was quite often going to the house of the accused. Even the accused had lot of affection and love towards the deceased child, as he had no female issues. While this was so, it is stated that on 27-9-2004, at about 9. 30 or 10. 00 a. m. in the morning, the deceased child after having food in the house, while her grandmother P. W. 9 was inside the house, had visited the house of the accused. At that time, it is stated that the accused was all alone in the house. However, there is nothing on record to show whether the deceased child had gone on its own to the house of the accused or the said child had been taken away by the accused to his house. The deceased child Akhila used to wear a pair of gold ear rings M. O. 1 and a pair of sliver leg chains M. O. 2 on her person. These two ornaments were usually found worn by the deceased child. Apart from this, on that relevant day, the deceased child was wearing the clothes like the frock m. O. 3, the underwear M. O. 4 and also had on her person a beaded neck chain M. O. 5 and a black thread M. O. 10. After abdut sometime, when Smt. Sharadamma P. W. 9 came out of the house, she did not find the child and on the other hand, she had heard cries like that of or resembling to that of her granddaughter Akhila from the house of the accused. Thereupon, Smt. Sharadamma p. W. 9 went to the house of the accused and enquired him, whether her granddaughter is to be found in his house. On being so enquired by P. W. 9, it is stated that the accused got little bit scared and appeared to be perturbed. But, he however told Smt. Sharadamma P. W. 9 that her granddaughter did not come to his house. Thereafter, the said Smt. Sharadamma P. W. 9 along with others made a search for the deceased child in and around her house, but could not secure the child. Ultimately, she informed this fact to the other members of the family, who along with a few others made efforts to search for the child, but it was proved to be in vain. In the meantime, the accused was found leaving the house at about 4. 00 p. m. in the evening, stating that he would be going to Shimoga on some urgent work. He was found carrying a suit case with him. The accused was found proceeding in an auto-rickshaw carrying a suit case with him. Though the accused had made a representation that he would be going to Shimoga on some urgent work, he got down from the auto-rickshaw at a point, from where he could catch another vehicle to proceed to davanagere. The accused had in fact went to Davanagere by travelling in another vehicle carrying the suit case along with him. On the same day evening the parents of the deceased child were also informed of the missing of the child from the house of P. W. 9 and they had come to the house of P. W. 9. On their arrival from Davanagere, P. W. 9 smt. Sharadamma narrated the entire incident in detail leading to the missing of the child to the parents of the deceased child. While the search was being continued to trace the missing child, on 27-9-2004 at about 10. 00 p. m. in the night, i. e. , on the same night, P. W. 1 Bharmappa, a railway employee found a gunny bag lying on the seat in the 4th compartment of the Intercity train from the engine at the Hubli Platform, when he was in the process of locking the compartments. P. W. 1 Bharmappa informed this fact to his superiors, who in their turn informed the same to the Railway Police. In fact, it is P. W. 1, who had actually informed the said fact to the Railway Police on being directed by his superiors. On examining the gunny bag they felt something fishy about the contents in the gunny bag which was found abandoned in the compartment and hence, they informed the said fact to the officer-in-charge of the Police Station attached to the Railway Station. Thereafter, it was found that the said gunny bag contained the dead body of the deceased child. P. W. 20 V. V. Hiregoudar, was then the PSI of the Railway Police Station at Hubli. On 27-9-2004, at about 11. 10. p. m. in the night, when the PSI P. W. 20 was present in the police Station, he had received a Memo from the Station Master stating that a gunny bag containing the dead body of a child is found lying in one of the compartments of the Inter-city train at the Hubli Railway Platform. He received that Memo and proceeded near the said compartment, where the gunny bag containing the dead body of the deceased child was lying. Thereafter, a complaint was lodged by Bharamappa P. W. 1 at about 12. 00 midnight in this regard and on the basis of which, the PSI P. W. 20 registered the case in Crime No. 80/2004 at the Hubli Railway police Station. Thereafter, he held the inquest proceedings on the dead body of the deceased child in the presence of the panchas as per the inquest report Exhibit p. 3. After the inquest proceedings were held on the dead body of the deceased child, the psi P. W. 20 forwarded the dead body of the deceased child for its post-mortem examination to the KMC Hospital at Hubli. Till then, the dead body of the deceased child could not be identified and hence, after the post-mortem examination was conducted on the dead body, the PSI P. W. 20 got the dead body of the deceased child buried. Thereafter, the PSI P. W. 20 made over the investigation of this case to his superior officer. While this was so, at about 3. 00 p. m. on 28-4-2004, the parents of the deceased child having come to know of the dead body of a child being recovered from a gunny bag found lying in the railway compartment, went to Hubli and there, they identified the photograph of the dead body of the deceased child that was shown to them by the Police and also the clothes that were found on the dead body to be that of their child Akhila. The ornaments that were usually worn by the deceased child on its person were not to be found, when the dead body of the deceased child was traced in the gunny bag found abandoned in the compartment. That is to say, the ornaments that were usually worn by the deceased child were found to be missing from the dead body. Thereafter, further investigation of this case was transferred to the Harihara Police on the point of jurisdiction. P. W. 25 A. S. Gori, who was then the CPI of Harihara Circle is the Investigating officer. After the CPI P. W. 25 took up the further investigation of this case, he visited the house, where the deceased was living and after making necessary enquiries, he went to the house of the accused and arrested him from his house. After the arrest, the Investigating Officer P. W. 25 took the accused to Davanagere for the purpose of interrogation. When the accused was being subjected to interrogation by the Investigating Officer P. W. 25, he volunteered with an information to point out the places and the ornaments, which statement of the accused was recorded by the Investigating officer P. W. 25 to writing as per Exhibit P. 24. Pursuant to such information, the accused led the Investigating Officer P. W. 25 and the panchas P. W. 6 and another in the first instance to his house, where he got recovered the suit-case M. O. 12 and the rope m. O. 13. They were seized under a panchanama Exhibit P. W. 5. Thereafter, the accused led them to a jewellery shop of P. W. 10 situated on the Vijayalakshmi Road in davanagere, where the accused got recovered the ornaments MOs. 1 and 2. They were both seized under a panchanama Exhibit P. 9. From there, the accused led them to a shop of P. W. 11 Shantappa, from where he had purchased the gunny bag M. O. 6 on the very day i. e. , 27-9-2004. Thereafter, the accused had also led them to a liquor shop, where he had consumed the liquor. The accused had also pointed out to them the place, where he got the dead body of the deceased child removed from the suit case and put into the gunny bag. He further pointed out the place, where he had actually put the gunny bag containing the dead body of the deceased into the compartment of the Inter-city Train at the Railway Platform of Davanagere. The Train was proceeding towards Hubli. After the Investigating officer P. W. 25 had done his part of the investigation and also since he was transferred to some other place, he made over the further investigation of this case to his successor P. W. 21. The said successor -Investigating Officer P. W. 21, after the completion of the investigation, submitted the charge-sheet to the Court against the accused.