RAMDHAR Vs. STATE OF C.G

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused/Appellants have preferred this criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure being aggrieved by the judgment dated 06-06-2001 passed by the Third Additional Sessions Judge, Jagdalpur (Bastar) in Sessions Trial No. 252/2000 by which the learned Additional Sessions Judge after holding the accused/Appellants guilt under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code sentenced each of them to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The relevant prosecution story for the disposal of this criminal appeal is that in the night of 10th May, 2000, when deceased Jaggu along with his, family members was sleeping in his house, Jaggu was sleeping in a separate room and the other family members were sleeping in another room, at that time accused/Appellants Ramdhar and his son Girdhar entered the room of Jaggu, dragged him out of his room and after catching hold of his throat they pressed his throat. On hearing the notice, the wife of the deceased namely Phulmati and the other wife of the deceased woke up and saw that the accused persons were dragging Jaggu out of his room, assaulted him on the head by stone and after beating him they field from the scene. Thereafter, both of them saw that Jaggu has died. There was a dispute between the accused persons and the deceased because the accused persons were suspecting that deceased Jaggu is practicing witchcraft. On the next day, Phulmati lodged the merg intimation Ex. P-1 in the Police Station and based on that the Police registered the First Information Report Ex. P-2 Through Ex. P-3 the Police seized the iron axe on which the blood spots were present, which was produced by Appellant No. 1 Ramdhar from his house. Through Ex. P-4 the stone was recovered at the instance of Appellant No. 2 Girdhar. Based on the memorandum Ex. P-5 given by Appellant No. 1 Ramdhar and memorandum Ex. P-6 given by Appellant No. 2 Girdhar, through Ex. P-7 the blood stained soil and simple soil were taken into possession. Through Ex. P-8 the baniyan on which the blood spots were present was taken into possession. The Panchanama of the dead body of the deceased Ex. P-10 was prepared after giving the notice Ex. P-9. The postmortem of the dead body of the deceased was got conducted by Dr. R.K. Nag and report Ex. P-11 was prepared. After completion of the investigation the challan was filed against the accused/Appellants. The learned Additional Sessions Judge framed the charge against the accused Appellants under Section 302 of the I.P.C. The accused/Appellants denied the charge and the prosecution in order to prove the offence against the accused/Appellants examined in all seven witnesses. On the other hand, the statement of the accused persons were recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which they said that they are innocent and they have been falsely implicated in the case. The learned Additional Sessions Judge after hearing the arguments of the Public Prosecutor and counsel for the accused passed the impugned judgment.

(3.) We have heard the learned Counsel for the accused/Appellants and learned Deputy Govt. Advocate for the State/Respondent.