SURUTI BAI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has preferred this criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 14-2-2003 passed in Sessions Trial Case No. 171 of 2002, whereby learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge (FTC) Korba, has convicted the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for committing murder of Krishna Kumar, a child aged about 3 - 4 years and sentenced her to undergo life imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs. 500/-, in default of payment of fine to undergo further RI for three months.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, in brief, as projected in the impugned judgment is that on 19-2-2002 in the morning, Vishwanath (PW/1) along with his wife Sheet Bai (PW/15), his father Sonauram and his son Khemlal (PW/17) went to the field of Murari Jaiswal of their village for making bricks, leaving Manoj Kumar (PW/16) and Krishna Kumar (the deceased) in the house. After some time, Manoj Kumar also came there along with Krishna Kumar (deceased) whereupon Vishwanath sent back Krishna Kumar along with Khemlal to the house. Thereafter, at about 10:00 a.m. Khemlal (PW/17) brought Krishna Kumar to him in the field and stated that Krishna Kumar was given some medicine to drink by the appellant as a result of which he was suffering from stomachache. On this, Vishwanath smelt the breathing of Krishna Kumar and detected the foul smell coming from his mouth. On asking, Krishna Kumar replied that the appellant gave him some medicine to drink. Thereafter, Krishna Kumar was brought to the house where he was caused to vomit and was examined by one Firatram Yadav (PW/19) an employee of the Govt. Hospital of the village, who advised to take Krishna Kumar to Govt. Hospital, Korba immediately. Krishna Kumar was taken to the Govt. Hospital, Korba where he died after some time during treatment. Dr. D.K. Shrivastava (PW/18) sent morgue intimation (Ex.P/15) to police out post Rampur where morgue intimation (Ex.P/7) was registered at zero. Thereafter, inquest (Ex.P/1) was prepared over the person of the deceased by A.S.I. Grahan Singh Rathore (PW/12) and sent the (Ex.P/7) to police station, Kartala for registration of crime where morgue intimation (Ex.P/17) was registered. Thereafter, the S.H.O. M.P. Tondon (PW/13), police station, Kartala proceeded to village Chiknipali, the place of occurrence and after recording the statements of witnesses, recorded Dehati Nalisi (EX.P/10) on the basis of which FIR (Ex.P/11) was registered in police station, Kartala. Postmortem of the dead body of Krishna Kumar was conducted by Dr. D.K. Shrivastava (PW/18), spot map was prepared by Patwari Nand Kishore Singh (PW/14) and 'monochrotophos' pesticide in a plastic container was seized vide Ex.P/6 on being produced by Firturam (PW/7), the husband of the appellant.

(3.) The viscera preserved from the body of the deceased during postmortem was sent to FSL for chemical examination and report thereof was received (Ex.P/18), according to which presence of organo phosphorous pesticide Monochrotophos was found in the viscera of the deceased .