PAPPU SAHU Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal preferred under Sec. 374(2) of Criminal Procedure Code 1973 is directed against the impugned judgment of convic- tion and order of sentence dtd. 11/8/2015, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Mungeli (C.G.) in Session Trial No. H 34/2014, whereby the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under:

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that, the informant Sanju Jaiswal, resident of village Birkoni, appeared at Police Station Hirri on 25/5/2014 and lodged an oral report stating that his brother Sanjay Jaiswal had left the house on 21/5/2014 between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. without in- forming anyone and had not returned till then. Despite searching for him at the houses of relatives, he could not be traced. The missing per- son was described as having a height of about 5 feet 6 inches, round face, black hair, fair complexion, and he was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans pant at the time he left the house. On the basis of the said information, a missing person report No. 14/14 was registered at Police Station Hirri as per Exhibit P-15. Thereafter, on 27/5/2014, the Kotwar of village Daruwankapa, namely Janikdas, appeared at Police Station Hirri and lodged a marg intimation stating that an unknown male person aged about 30 years was lying dead in the vacant room of Pardeshi Kaushle's Indira Awas. The deceased was wearing a black T- shirt and blue jeans pant, and his face was not identifiable. On the ba- sis of this information, Marg No. 31/14 was registered at Police Station Hirri as per Exhibit P-8 and the marg inquiry was taken up. During the course of marg inquiry, the identification proceedings of the dead body were conducted as per Exhibit P-1 in the presence of Sanju Jaiswal and Krishna Kumar Jaiswal, who identified the deceased as Sanjay Jaiswal on the basis of the clothes and slippers worn by him. During the marg inquiry, notices were issued to witnesses as per Exhibit P-2 for their presence at the time of preparation of the inquest (Naksha Panchayatnama), which was prepared as per Exhibit P-3. The spot map of the place of occurrence was prepared as per Exhibit P-4. As per Exhibit P-11A, Constable No. 40-1032 Manharan was given the post-mortem requisition (Exhibit P-14A) and the dead body was sent for post-mortem examination to CHC Bilha, from where after post- mortem the post-mortem report (Exhibit P-14) was received and an- nexed with the case file. Thereafter, as per Exhibits P-11 and P-12, the dead body was handed over to the relatives of the deceased for last rites. On suspicion, the accused Pappu Sahu was taken into police custody and his memorandum statement (Exhibit P-5) was recorded, wherein the accused stated that he had friendship with Sanjay Jaiswal and used to have physical relations with him. After the marriage of San- jay, the latter started demanding money from him and threatened that if the money was not paid, he would defame him and kill him. Due to this reason, the accused decided to eliminate Sanjay Jaiswal. Accordingly, on 21/5/2014, he took Sanjay on his motorcycle, made him consume liquor and took him inside the room of the Indira Awas, where he pressed the nose and mouth of Sanjay with a red handkerchief, as a result of which Sanjay died on the spot. On the basis of the disclosure made by the accused, a motorcycle, handkerchief and clothes were seized under seizure memo (Exhibit P-6). Thereafter, an FIR (Exhibit P- 20) was registered at Police Station Hirri under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code vide Crime No. 108/14, and the accused was arrested as per arrest memo (Exhibit P-7). Information regarding the arrest of the accused was given to Ramkumar Sahu as per Exhibit P-16. Fur- ther, articles from the place of occurrence were seized as per Exhibit P- 10. As per Exhibit P-13, Constable Manharan produced three sealed containers, which were seized and the seized property was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Raipur, and acknowledgment receipts (Exhibits P-18 and P-19) were obtained and placed on record. As per Exhibit P-17, an application was sent to the Tahsildar, Patharia, on the basis of which the spot map and panchnama (Exhibit P-9) were pre- pared. During the remaining course of investigation, statements of wit- nesses were recorded and after completion of the entire investigation, a charge-sheet was prepared and filed before the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mungeli.

(3.) Statements of witnesses were recorded under Sec. 161 of Cr.P.C. After completion of investigation, the appellant was charge-sheeted be- fore the jurisdictional criminal Court and the case was committed to the trial Court for hearing and disposal in accordance with law, in which ap- pellant/accused abjured his guilt and entered into defence by stating that he has not committed the offence.