DHARMENDER KUMAR PASWAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Dharmender Kumar Paswan the appellant, has been convicted vide impugned decision dated July 23, 2013 for the offence of having murdered his live-in partner Sudha. He has also been convicted for causing evidence of the commission of the offence to disappear with the intention to screen himself as an offender. Vide order on sentence dated August 01, 2013, for the offence of murder he has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay find in sum of Rs. 10,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for three months. For the offence punishable under Section 201 IPC he has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for three years and pay fine in sum of Rs. 1,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for one month.

(2.) The testimony of Master Ayush PW-5 who claimed to be an eye witness has been believed. The next incriminating evidence in returning the verdict of guilt is the testimony of Rajender PW-7, the landlord, as per which the appellant and the deceased were last seen at their residence on August 10, 2010, and that was when the deceased was seen last alive. The next incriminating evidence is a linear, healed scar mark of size 4.5 x 2 cm present over anterior aspect of left side of the appellant's chest which as per Dr.Hari Prasad PW-21 who has examined the appellant could be the result of a finger nail or a nail like object. Lastly absconsion of the appellant.

(3.) While cross-examining Sujita PW-4, the sister of the deceased Sudha, and Rajender Prakash PW-7, the landlord of E-26, Harkesh Nagar, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, the line of defence which emerges is that the appellant was not residing, as a tenant, in a room in the building E-26, Harkesh Nagar, New Delhi, but ultimately the stand taken by the appellant, evidenced by his answers given to incriminating circumstances put under Section 313 Cr.P.C. followed by appellant examining himself as DW-2, is that the appellant and the deceased resided together in a room taken on rent at E-26, Harkesh Nagar, Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi but the two parted company when Sudha left the room at 9:00 AM on August 10, 2010 with her sister Sujita PW-4 and the appellant vacated the tenanted premises thereafter.