JAN BAI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants Janbai, Binod Das (since dead) and Aghan Das have called in question their conviction under Ss. 302 and 201 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC and sentence of life imprisonment and RI for five years respectively for each of the offence with usual default clause. While appellant-1 Janbai is the mother of the deceased, appellant- 2 Binod Das is brother of the deceased. This appellant has died on 8/3/2014 during the pendency of the appeal, therefore, appeal on behalf of this appellant has abated. Appellant- 3 Aghan Das is the maternal uncle of the deceased being brother of appellant- 1, Jan Bai.

(2.) Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that deceased Ashok Das aged about 20 years was habitual drunkard. He used to come back to the house in a state of intoxication and abuse appellants- 1 and 2. He used to demand money for consuming liquor. On the date of incident also the deceased reached the house at about 11 pm in the night and started demanding money on which appellant- 1 Jan Bai and appellant- 2 Binod Das assaulted him and committed murder by causing injuries to the deceased by means of stone. The dead body was later on buried in an agricultural field with the assistance of appellant- 3, Aghan Das. Although the deceased was missing from 23/4/2004, the police was not informed.

(3.) As per the morgue intimation lodged by Kotwar Shiv Das (PW-1), accused Binod Das informed him that deceased Ashok Das had left the house two/three days back and his dead body is lying in the agricultural field. In Court statement, Shiv Das stated that one Madhav informed him about the dead body of the deceased. In the post-mortem report (Ex.P/22) conducted by Dr PS Kunwar (PW-14), he could not give any definite opinion about the cause of death. During further investigation, the police recorded the memorandum statement of appellant- 1 Jan Bai vide Ex.P/6 leading to recovery of axe vide Ex.P/9. Similarly memorandum statement of appellant- 3 Aghan Das was recorded vide Ex.P/7 leading to recovery of bicycle which was used for taking the dead body to the agricultural field vide seizure memo Ex.P/10. Memorandum statement of Binod Das, appellant- 2 was recorded vide Ex.P/8 leading to recovery of stone and burnt ashes of Gudadi (home made blanket) vide Ex.P/12. The accused persons have allegedly made extra judicial confession before Cheduram (PW-10), Mohandas (PW-9), Heeralal (PW-13) and Mohanlal (PW-16).