BYASNARAYAN SAHU Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 11.2.2013 passed by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Baloda Bazar, Distt. Raipur (CG) in S.T. No.05/2012 convicting the appellant under Section 302 of IPC and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- with default stipulation.

(2.) As per the prosecution case, the accused/appellant is proprietor of a hotel which was just opposite to the hotel of PW-4 Hulesh Kumar Sahu. It is alleged that on 25.11.2011 PW-4 Hulesh Kumar, his father Bhagirathi (deceased), PW-9 Dhaneshwar and the appellant Byasnarayan consumed liquor in the hotel of PW-4 and thereafter, PW4 and PW-9 left the hotel saying that they were going back to their respective houses whereas the appellant and the deceased decided to stay at night in the hotel of PW-4. It is alleged that in the night as the appellant demanded more liquor from Bhagirathi, there was quarrel between the two and during quarrel the appellant assaulted Bhagirathi on his head with stone slab <IMG border=1 src="http://www.indialawlibrary.com\images\23112018-164.jpg"> resulting in his death. Next morning i.e. 26.11.2011 PW-4 Hulesh Kumar when returned to his hotel, he found the door of the hotel closed from outside and on opening the same he found dead body of his father Bhagirathi lying there in pool of blood. He immediately informed about the same to Chhedulal (PW-11) and on 26.11.2011 at 7.30 am merg intimation (Ex.P/10) was recorded at the instance of PW-11 Chhedulal. Based on this, FIR (Ex.P/11) was registered on 26.11.2011 at 7.40 am under Section 302 of IPC against unknown person. Inquest on the dead body was conducted on 26.11.2011 vide Ex.P/3 and thereafter the body was sent for postmortem which was conducted on the same day vide Ex.P/4 by Dr. M. Prakash Aditya which has been proved by PW-15 Dr. Narayan Singh. As per postmortem report, there were two crushed/lacerated wounds on the head and fracture of left temporal bone and depressed fracture at mid parietal region. The cause of death was opined to be hemorrhagic shock due to injury/lacerated wounds to major vessels of scalp and that the death was homicidal in nature. On 27.11.2011 memorandum of the appellant (Ex.P/6) was recorded which led to seizure of stone slab vide Ex.P/7. The seized articles were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory for chemical examination, however, there is no FSL report on record. While framing charge, the trial Judge charged the appellant u/s 302 of IPC.

(3.) So as to hold the accused/appellant guilty, the prosecution examined 17 witnesses in all. Statement of the accused was also recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. in which he denied the circumstances appearing against him in the prosecution case, pleaded innocence and false implication. In defence, the accused examined two witnesses.