VIJENDRA SHUKLA Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant would call in question the legality and validity of the impugned judgment whereby the trial Judge has convicted the appellant for committing offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'the IPC') and has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The prosecution case, briefly stated, is that Sunita Shukla (since deceased), wife of the present appellant, informed her sister namely; Sarita Choudhary (PW-2) at about 7.30 am on 24-3-2011 that her life should be saved as she has been set ablaze. PW-2 Sarita reached the house of the deceased and took her to Sector-9 Hospital, Bhilai, and thereafter to Medical College Hospital, Raipur. At this place dying declaration (Ex.P/9) was recorded by PW-5 Yamini Pandey in which the deceased disclosed that her husband has set her on fire and that her in-laws provoked her husband and were demanding dowry, failing which Vijendra (appellant herein) will be married again elsewhere.

(3.) PW-1 Ramapati Tiwari lodged First Information Report (FIR) (Ex.P./1) on 25-3-2011, which was registered by PW-6 Nand Kumar Dubey. The deceased succumbed to the burn injuries at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Hospital, Raipur, on 25-4- 2011. Merg intimation (Ex.P/10 and Ex.P/11) was recorded and the dead body inquest was prepared vide Ex.P/6. Postmortem was conducted by PW-3 Dr. Shivnarayan Manjhi, who submitted the postmortem report (Ex.P/8) opining that death was due to cardiorespiratory failure as a result of burns and their complications. The Investigating Officer recovered semi brunt white printed maxi of the deceased in presence of witnesses PW-1 Ramapati Tiwari and PW-4 Premnath Sinha together with burnt black petty coat and burnt bra. One plastic bottle containing half filled kerosene oil was recovered (Article 'B') vide seizure memo Ex.P/3. The seized articles were sent for FSL examination to the State Forensic Science Laboratory, Raipur, who submitted the FSL Report vide Ex.P/14 finding traces of kerosene oil on the burnt/ semi burnt clothes and kerosene oil in the plastic bottle (Article 'B').