GURUBANDHU Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal preferred by the appellant-accused under Sec. 374(2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 19/7/2016, passed by the Sessions Judge, Bastar (Jagdalpur) in Sessions Case No.24 of 2016, whereby he has been convicted for offence under Sec. 302 of IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, in short, is that on 13/1/2016 between 02:00 PM to 06:00 PM, at Village Tarai Para, Yadav Gali, Swami Vivekanand Ward, Hatkaphora, within the ambit of Police Station Bodhghat, Bastar (Jagdalpur), the accused-appellant herein firstly quarreled with his wife, namely, Smt. Mugaya Bai (for short the 'deceased") on a dispute with regard to not cooking the food by her and, thereafter, abused her and assaulted her by means of hand, fist and leg and also by wooden stick, due to which, she suffered grievous injuries and died and, thereby, the appellant is said to have committed offence under Sec. 302 of IPC.

(3.) Thereafter, when the matter was reported to the police, marg intimation (Ex.P/02) and FIR (Ex.P/01) were registered against the appellant and wheels of investigation started running, in which, inquest proceedings were conducted vide Ex.P/07 and summons under Sec. 175 of CrPC were sent vide Ex.P/06. Spot map was also prepared vide Ex.P/13. The dead-body of deceased was sent for postmortem examination and in the postmortem report (Ex.P/15), conducted by Dr. Harbansh Kumar Singh (PW-09), it was opined that the cause of death of deceased is blunt trauma to chest and lungs and nature of death is homicidal. The appellantaccused was arrested vide Ex.P/10. The weapon of the offence i.e. wooden stick has been seized vide Ex.P/09. The aforesaid seized wooden stick was subjected for query to an expert/doctor and as per query report (Ex.P/16) it has been opined that injuries mentioned in PM report (Ex.P/15) can be caused by said wooden stick. However, said wooden stick was not sent for chemical examination for the reasons best known to the prosecution. Thereafter, statements of witnesses were recorded and, after due investigation, the police filed charge-sheet against the appellant in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jagdalpur and, thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions for hearing and trial in accordance with law, in which the appellant/accused abjured his guilt and entered into defence by stating that he is innocent and has been falsely implicated.