VIRENDRA KUMAR Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant criminal appeal filed by the appellants herein under Sec. 374(2) of the Cr.P.C. challenging therein judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Sessions Judge, District Rajnandgaon (C.G.) dtd. 5/12/2013 in Sessions Trial No. 13/2013, whereby each of the appellants has been convicted and sentenced as under:- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_87_LAWS(CHH)1_2023_1.html</FRM>

(2.) The brief facts of the present case are that appellant No.1 -Virendra Kumar Uke is husband of the deceased and appellant No.2 Sarswati Bai is second wife of appellant No.1. At the time of incident, appellant No. 1 was residing on first floor of the house, whereas, deceased - Radhika Bai, first wife of appellant No.1 was residing along with her children in the ground floor of the same house. Dead body of the deceased was found in a room on first floor. On 1/10/2012 at about 08:05 pm, PW-2 - Taman Lal Bansod informed the police regarding death of the deceased on account of burn injuries. Consequently, merg intimation (Ex.-P/1) was registered. The Investigation Officer, H.N. Singh Rajput (PW-14) reached to the spot. Inquest of dead body was conducted vide Ex.-P/2 on 2/10/2012. Dead body of the deceased was in half burnt condition and the tongue was protruded. The broken bangles and other articles were seized vide Ex.-P/9. The dead body was sent for postmortem. PW-3 Dr. Umesh Shrivastava and Dr. R.R. Dhurve conducted postmortem and their report is Ex.-P/4. As per postmortem report, the extent of the burn injuries was 60-70%. The viscera and trachea of the deceased were preserved. No opinion regarding nature of the death was given by the Doctors in the postmortem report. On 3/10/2012 F.I.R. (Ex.-P/14) was registered against unknown person. During investigation, the appellants were taken into custody. The police recorded memorandum statement of appellant No.2 Sarswati Bai vide Ex.-P/8 and seized some jewelry and other articles of the deceased on her instance vide Ex.-P/5. The police recorded memorandum statement (Ex.-P/6) of appellant No.1 Virendra Kumar Uke and on his instance kerosene container was recovered and seized vide Ex.-P/7. After completion of the investigation, the appellants were charge-sheeted for offence punishable under Sec. 302, 201 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Rajnandgaon which was committed to the Court of Sessions for hearing and disposal in accordance with law.

(3.) The learned trial Court framed charge for offence punishable under Sec. 302 in alternative Sec. 302/34 and 201 of the IPC against each of the appellants. The appellants abjured the charge and pleaded non-guilty. In order to bring home the offence, prosecution examined as many as 16 witnesses and exhibited 30 documents. The defence exhibited documents i.e. D1 to D5. Statement of the accused/appellants was recorded under Sec. 313 of the CrPC wherein they denied the guilt.