RAJENDRA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF C.G.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Invoking the criminal appellate jurisdiction of this Court under Sec. 374(2) of the CrPC at the instance of the appellants who are three in number, this appeal has been preferred calling in question legality, validity and correctness of the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 8/9/2015 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Janjgir, District Janjgir-Champa, in Sessions Trial No.83/2015, by which the three appellants herein have been convicted for offence under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life & pay fine of 1,000/- each, in default of payment of fine to further undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for one month.

(2.) Case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that on 24/5/2014 in between 09:00 a.m. and 04:00 p.m., at the forest of Village Khisora, under the jurisdiction of Police Station Baloda, District Janjgir-Champa, the three appellants herein in furtherance of their common intention, strangulated Bharat @ Bhupendra manually with the help of a gamcha by which he suffered grievous injuries and died and thereby committed the offence. Jivrakhan Ratre (PW-1) reported the matter to the police by which morgue was recorded vide Ex.P-1 and thereafter, morgue enquiry was conducted and after morgue enquiry, FIR was registered vide Ex.P-20 on 16/3/2015 and inquest was conducted vide Ex.P-16. Dead body of deceased Bharat @ Bhupendra was sent for postmortem to Community Health Centre, Baloda vide Ex.P-17. Postmortem was conducted by Dr. Sadanand Jangde (PW-10) vide Ex.P-14 and no definite opinion as to cause of death and nature of death was given by him, however, in the query report Ex.P-15, mode of death was stated to be asphyxia due to suffocation. Devnath Jangde (PW-4) was cited as eyewitness and his statement under Sec. 161 of the CrPC was recorded on 16/3/2015, whereas his statement under Sec. 164 of the CrPC was recorded on 23/3/2015. Memorandum statements of accused / appellants Rajendra Prasad (A-1), Komal Prasad (A-2) & Kaliram Lahare (A-3) were recorded vide Exs.P-3, P-4 & P-5, respectively, pursuant to which a towel (gamcha) was seized from Komal Prasad (A-2) vide Ex.P-6. Viscera was preserved in order to find out cause of death and nature of death and the same was sent to the FSL, Raipur, from where report Ex.P-19 was received, but nothing was found on the said viscera.

(3.) Statements of the witnesses were recorded under Sec. 161 of the CrPC. After due investigation, the accused / appellants were chargesheeted for offence under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC and charge-sheet was filed before the jurisdictional criminal court i.e. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Janjgir, and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions, Janjgir-Champa from where the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Janjgir, District Janjgir-Champa received the case on transfer for trial.