KRISHAN MURARI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the impugned judgment in Sessions Case No.28/1997 emanating from FIR No.343/1997 P.S. Gokalpuri convicting the appellant Krishan Murari on the charge of Section 302 IPC for having committed murder of Brij Lal and the consequent order on sentence of even date sentencing the appellant to imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one month.

(2.) Briefly stated, case of the prosecution is that Brij Lal (hereinafter referred to as 'deceased') was a 'pheriwala'(street vendor) who used to sell sarees in the area of Karawal Nagar, Sonia Vihar. On 9th May 1997 at around 9.00 am, Brij Lal left the house of his brother-inlaw Amar Singh for work, carrying sarees worth Rs.10,000/- to Rs.12,000/- He, however, did not return back. His brother PW-6 Suraj searched for him and when Suraj failed to locate the deceased, he made a missing report to the Police Control Room, which information was conveyed to the Police Station Gokalpuri and was recorded as DD 36-B at 3.20 pm on 10th May 1997. On 11th May 1997 at 11.50 am, an information was received from wireless operator PCR that a dead body was found at a distance of 1 km from village Samapur in the farms near the 'baandh'. The information was recorded as DD No.7-A, ExPW16/A at Police Station Gokal Puri and a copy thereof was sent to S.I. Rajiv Sinha through Home Guard Constable Subhash. The Additional SHO Inspector Safdar Ali PW-20 also left for the spot in the official vehicle. On reaching the spot, Inspector Safdar Ali PW-20 and Sub- Inspector Vikramajit Singh PW-16 found a dead body wrapped in a gunny bag (taat bori) lying on the 5th pushta. The dead body, found wrapped in a multicoloured khadi cloth, was taken out from the gunny bag. The body was in a very bad shape and could not be identified. Inspector Safdar Ali appended his endorsement Ex. PW-3/A on the DD report Ex.PW-16/A and sent it to the police station through Constable Pradeep Kumar, on the basis of which formal FIR Ex.PW- 3/B was recorded.

(3.) The Investigating Officer got the dead body as well the spot of occurrence photographed from various angles. He also prepared a rough site plan Ex.PW-20/A. He took into possession the gunny bag Ex.PX-1, multi coloured cloth Ex.PX-5, a key ring Ex.PX-1 with two keys PX-2 and PX-3 vide memo Ex.PW-3/C after converting those articles into sealed parcels. On the same day, the dead body of the deceased was identified by his brothers PW-5 Tota Ram and PW-6 Suraj. The Investigating Officer sent the dead body for post mortem examination which was conducted by PW-2 Dr.N.K.Aggarwal, who, on examination of the body found two stab wounds on the neck of the deceased and a lacerated wound on the front right side of the head. The doctor opined the time of death was three days from the time of commencement of post mortem examination and that the cause of death was shock due to haemorrhage. All the injuries were found to be ante mortem and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The doctor also observed that the dead body was highly decomposed.