RAMABAI CHOUHAN Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been preferred by the Appellant assailing the judgment of conviction and sentence dtd. 8/9/2000 passed by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Raigarh in Sessions Trial No. 194 of 1996 convicting the Appellant for the offence under Sec. 302 of IPC and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life for the said offence.

(2.) As per the prosecution case, on 31/5/1996 the deceased, Parru Sidar was working in the house of the appellant-accused, however later in the afternoon the deceased was found dead on the verandah of the house of the appellant-accused. The stand of the appellant-accused was that the deceased has committed suicide by hanging in her house with the help of a blue terricot scarf (safi). It was also contended before the police authorities that when she reached to the spot in the afternoon she found the deceased hanging and he was wiggling so she brought a ladder and untied the knot of the safi from the neck and brought down the deceased who later on died. It was also the case of the appellant-accused that after she had put the deceased on the ground she took aid of her niece, Bimla and laid the deceased on the cot. According to the Appellant, thereafter she informed other villagers about the incident and also to the police authorities, on the basis of which a Merg was lodged. Investigation was conducted and the body of the deceased was sent for postmortem.

(3.) PW-6, Dr. R. K.Upadhyay conducted the post-mortem in which he has found ligature mark on the neck of the deceased, horizontally placed below thyroid cartilage, and it was also found that the carotid artery was ruptured and blood had come out of muscle, air pipe was congested with froth and on the basis of the said examination, the Doctor reached to the conclusion that the deceased had died due to asphyxia on account of strangulation. During the course of the medical examination a terricot safi (Exhibit P-1) was produced before the Doctor for his opinion and who gave an opinion that it is possible that the neck of the deceased could be pressed and chocked to death with the aid of the said safi. Thereafter, an FIR (Exhibit P-7) was lodged and later on a charge-sheet was also filed and finally the matter was put to trial before the First Additional Sessions Judge, Raigarh where the case was registered as Sessions Trial No. 194 of 1996.