KOMAL CHANDRAVANSHI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the appeals are being heard together, as the common thread passes through the issue.

(2.) The present appeals are arising out of judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 23/3/2021 passed by the Special Judge {Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act}, Kabeerdham, in Atrocity Spl. Criminal Case No.99/2018 whereby the learned Court below convicted the appellants for offence under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced each of them to connected matters undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000.00, in default of payment of fine to further undergo RI for one month. However, acquitted the appellants from the charge under Sec. 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) (Amendment) Act, 2015.

(3.) (i) The prosecution case, as emerging from the material on record, is that when on 3/10/2018 the deceased Lekhram was at his home, at about 10.30 pm he received 2-3 calls on his mobile. The deceased thereafter went out with a Jerry Can to bring diesel. His wife Phoolbasan (PW-3) went to sleep. Subsequently, when he did not return till next day morning, Phoolbasan and her brother in law Shatruhan started searching and tried to call him, but his mobile was responding as switched off. Thereafter, Shatruhan (PW-4) went for searching the deceased and on the way one person namely; Radheshyam informed him that in between Gangapur and Padi the dead body was lying. Having gone there and identified the dead body that it was of deceased Lekhram, a report was made by Phoolbasan (PW-3), wife of the deceased, on 4/10/2018. The report having been made, merg was recorded vide Ex.P/5 and subsequently the FIR was registered vide Ex.P/6. The dead body was subjected to postmortem. The postmortem was conducted by Dr.Belchandan (PW-11) and report thereof was given vide Ex.P/26. During investigation by Bharat Bareth (PW-10), from the place of incident, the motorcycle, slippers, scarf, bloodstained and plain soil was seized vide Ex.P/3.