BALAK RAM Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Balak Ram @ Baul stands convicted under Section 302 IPC for commission of murder of his wife, Jakni Bai, and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life by the Sessions Judge, Surguja (Ambikapur)Chhattisgarh, in Sessions Trial No. 68/2002 on 23. 10. 2002.

(2.) DECEASED, Jakni Bai, was resident of village kedma. She was married to appellant, who was resident of village Jivualiya, which is at a distance of 11/2 Km from village Kedma. On 2. 11. 2001, the deceased came to her parents place in village Kedma at about 10-11. 00 a. m. for taking whey (Mathah), where she was retained by her mother. The allegations are that in the evening at about 6. 00 p. m. , the appellant came there and assaulted the deceased with hands, fists and chappel (slipper ). She sustained some external injuries. Her two teeth were uprooted. This was witnesses by the mother of the deceased namely Padwaien Bai (PW3 ). Manta Ram (PW2), brother of the deceased, was not in the house on 2. 11. 2001 as he had gone for guarding the groundnut crops. When he returned on 3. 11. 2001 the story was narrated to him by his mother. Jakni Bai died at about 7. 00 p. m. on 3. 11. 2001 on account of injuries sus-tained by her. The matter was reported to the concerned police station on 4. 11. 2001 by brother of the deceased, Manta Ram (PW2), on which, merg intimation (Ex. P6) and a First Information Report (Ex. P3) were recorded.

(3.) ON such information, the Investigating Officer left for the scene of occurrence, gave notice (Ex. P4) to the panchas and prepared inquest (Ex. P5) on the body of the deceased. The dead body of the deceased was sent for its post-mortem to Community Health Center, udaipur through requisition Ex. P9, where the post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. I. D. Bhatnagar (PW5), who prepared his report Ex. P18. The Autopsy surgeon noticed the following injuries on the body of the deceased: (i) Lacerated wound over left eye size 1 inch x 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch; (ii) Bruise over upper lip with laceration on upper gum. Two teeth of upper jaw were uprooted; (iii) Bruise around neck which may have been caused by throttling; (iv) Bruise over right chest size 3 inch x 3 inch, and (v) Abrasion over left forearm size 2 inch x 2 inch. On internal examination, he noticed that blood clots were there on the membrane of right lung and it was ruptured. Other organs like liver, spleen and kidney were congested. He opined that the cause of death was asphyxia due to throttling and internal haemorrhage in the lungs and it was homicidal in nature.