KAILASH LODHI Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CHALLENGE is made to the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 16. 1. 2003 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, district Rajnandgaon in Sessions Trial No. 114/2002, whereby, the appellants have been convicted under Sections 302 and 201 i. P. C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000, in default of payment of fine to further undergo R. I. for 10 months and R. I. for 7 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000, in default of payment of fine to further undergo R. I. for 5 months with further direction to run the sentences concurrently.

(2.) DECEASED Basant Lodhi was working in the shop of Bhuwan and Jagannath (PW6) situated in village Parpodi. He was resident of village Patharrikhurd. He used to go to the shop on every morning. On 7. 4. 2002, he did not return to his house, search was made and ultimately on 11. 4. 2002, his dead body was found in a field in village Suradabri. The matter was reported to the police by Bhojram (PW1) and a merg intimation (Ex. P1) was recorded. On 11. 4. 2002, the Investigating Officer prepared inquest (Ex. P2) on the body of the deceased. The dead body was sent for postmortem to P. H. C. , Chhuikhadan and the post-mortem examination was conducted by dr. Ashok Khare (PW4), who prepared his report (Ex. P8 ). The Autopsy Surgeon noticed that the body was in highly decomposed condition, his face had disfigured and hands and legs were mummified. Eyes were closed, tongue was protruding out of mouth and the neck was freely moving around. On internal examination, he found that axis bone was fractured, spinal cord was cut at 2nd and 3rd vertibra position and there were injuries on the upper side of right lung the left jaw was also fractured. He opined that the cause of death was cervical fracture leading to respiratory failure and the death has occurred in the period 5 to 7 days back. On 14. 4. 2002, appellant Kailash was taken into custody and a discovery memo (Ex. P3) u/s 27 of The Evidence Act was recorded and empty bottles of liquor etc. were seized from the place indicated by him, which was a place in the field where the dead body was found.

(3.) THE case of the prosecution is that 3 years prior to the date of incident, the deceased had purchased a land from the appellant Kailash Lodhi for a consideration of rs. 25,000. Though the consideration was fully paid and the possession of the land was also delivered to the deceased but the execution of registered sale-deed had not taken place and appellant Kailash Lodhi was denying to executing the sale-deed. It is for this reason, on 7. 4. 2002, the appellants went to the shop of Jagannath (PW6)and took the deceased on their bicycles, whereafter, the deceased was not seen alive. Since the deceased was lastly seen alive with the appellants, on the circumstance of 'last seen together' the appellants were arrested, the charge-sheet was filed against them and after the trial they were convicted and sentenced as aforementioned.