SANGEETA TIWARI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants herein two in number namely Sangeeta Tiwari and Shashikant Tiwari have preferred this appeal under Sec. 374(2) of the CrPC, calling in question legality, validity and correctness of the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 14/8/2013 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ramanujganj, in Sessions Trial No.320/2010, whereby the appellants have been convicted under Ss. 302 and 201 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs.500.00 each, in default, additional rigorous imprisonment for six months and rigorous imprisonment for three years and pay a fine of Rs.500.00 each, in default, additional rigorous imprisonment for six months, respectively.

(2.) Case of the prosecution, in short, is that on 27/3/2010, night at 9.00 p.m., at Village Karji, Police Station Rajpur, the appellants along with co-accused (juvenile) Roshan have murdered Priya Tiwari - wife of appellant No.2 and in order to screen themselves from the aforesaid offence, burnt her dead body and thereby destroyed the evidence and thereby committed the aforesaid offences. Further case of the prosecution is that marriage of Priya Tiwari (deceased) was solemnized with appellant No.2 on 8-6- 2006 at Village Karanji, Udhenupara, Police Station Rajpur in accordance with Hindu rites and they were blessed with a son namely Utsav Tiwari on 3/6/2008. It is the further case of the prosecution that after solemnization of marriage, relation between appellant No.2 and deceased Priya Tiwari was cordial, but thereafter, the two appellants along with one juvenile accused started demanding money from the deceased and they used to treat her with cruelty, which the deceased had informed to her father in March, 2009 that the appellants have attempted to murder her by pouring kerosene oil on her body, and appellant No.2 has also demanded money from his father-in-law Mahendranath (PW-11) which was given by Mahendranath to brother of appellant No.2 Ramakant. On 27/3/2010, Mahendranath Tiwari (PW-11) had gone to Government Hospital MEKAHARA at Raipur for treatment of his son Banti, on that day, at 9.30 p.m., appellant No.2 informed him by phone that Priya Tiwari died, then Mahendranath reached to the house of appellant No.2 on 28-3- 2010 and noticed the dead body of his daughter Priya Tiwari in the courtyard of appellant No.2. Kalicharan (PW-7) informed to Rajpur Police Station pursuant to which morgue under Sec. 174 of the CrPC was registered and inquest proceeding was conducted vide Ex.P-2 in presence of S.N. Bajpai (PW-12) - the then Executive Magistrate-cum-Tahsildar who inspected the spot and also prepared naksha panchnama (Ex.P-2) and he found the dead body of deceased Priya Tiwari burnt fully in the courtyard of appellant No.2 and tongue was protruded and in burnt condition with no other bodily injury. As per the recommendation of Panchas, to ascertain cause of death, the dead body was sent for postmortem examination which was conducted by Dr. Pritam Ram (PW-13) who submitted his postmortem report vide Ex.P-11 disclosing the cause of death to be due to strangulation (asphyxia) and nature of death to be homicidal. On the disclosure of cognizable offence, the police took up the matter for investigation and registered first information report (FIR) bearing Crime No.31/2010. Thereafter, the police arrested appellant No.2 - husband of deceased Priya Tiwari and recorded his memorandum statement under Sec. 27 of the Evidence Act vide Ex.P-7 and on the basis of memorandum statement, 5 litres of plastic jerrycan containing half litre of kerosene oil has been seized vide Ex.P-8 in presence of two witnesses Umesh Kumar (PW-10) and Sushil Yadav (PW-9). Thereafter, the police recorded the statements of prosecution witnesses Sukhlal (PW-1), Dalsai (PW-2), Kalicharan (PW-7) and Sonar (PW-8), all these witnesses are residents of nearby place to the house of appellant No.2 and deceased Priya Tiwari and they reached immediately to the spot in the house of appellant No.2 where they found that the deceased had already died and in burnt condition. The police thereafter recorded the statements of Mahendranath Tiwari (PW-11) - father of the deceased and Smt. Kiran Devi (PW-15) - mother of the deceased. The Patwari drawn spot map (nazri naksha) vide Ex.P-3 showing the place of incident at point No.3 outside the house of appellant No.2, but it was surrounded by wooden logs. Incriminating articles have been seized from the spot vide Ex.P-6. Seized articles were sent for chemical examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory on 23/4/2010, but no FSL report has been brought on record by the prosecution for the reasons best known to them. The jurisdictional police after conclusion of investigation, submitted charge-sheet to the criminal court having jurisdiction against the appellants including the case of juvenile co-accused which was committed to the Court of Sessions for trial in accordance with law in which the two appellants herein have abjured the guilt and entered into defence by stating that they have not committed the offence and they have been falsely implicated.

(3.) The prosecution in order to bring home the offence, examined as many as 15 witnesses PW-1 to PW-15 in support of its case and brought into record 13 documents Exs.P-1 to P-13, whereas on behalf of defence, three witnesses including appellant No.2 as DW- 1, Beersai (DW-2) and Ashok Agrawal (DW-3) were examined and documents Exs.D-1 to D-6C were brought on record to prove the defence version.