VARINDER MANN@ PAPPU Vs. STATE NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal assails the judgment and order of court of sessions convicting the appellant for murder of his wife Anita and sentencing him for imprisonment for life with fine.

(2.) Anita, daughter of Dewan Singh (PW -17) and sister of Devender (PW -16), both resident of Sonipat, was concededly married to appellant in 1989. Both were living together in a house in village Prahaladpur within the jurisdiction of police station Samaipur Badli and out of their cohabitation two children had taken birth, they being aged about 4 years and 2 1/2 years respectively on 7th April, 1998. According to the prosecution case, Anita was found in injured condition, lying on a cot within the four walls of the house in which she was living with her husband, at about 8:00 - 8:30 AM by Parma Nand (PW -1), a building material contractor who had gone there in connection with some payment expected for the goods supplied by him sometime in the past. It is admitted case of the prosecution that construction work was going on in the said property and further that at the time of discovery of Anita in an injured state by PW -1, the appellant (the husband) was not present in the house. By the time the family of the woman including her devrani Pushpa (PW -6), wife of Narinder Singh (PW -8), who is younger brother of the appellant, was informed, and by the time medical help could be arranged, Anita succumbed to the injuries. On the basis of case registered on the statement of Devender Khatri (PW -16), as per the rukka (Ex.PW -16/A), the police investigated the matter assuming it to be a case of murder. On conclusion of the investigation, in the course of which, amongst others, the dead body of Anita was subjected to post -mortem examination by Dr. K.Goel (PW -9) in the mortuary of Subzi Mandi, Delhi, a charge -sheet was laid in the court seeking prosecution of the appellant on the charge that on the night of 6 -7th April, 1998, in the aforementioned house in village Prahladpur, he had committed the murder of Anita by manual strangulation having subjected her to physical assault, inter alia, with the help of a broom (Ex.P -2) and a wooden stick (Ex.P -1).

(3.) The trial before the court of sessions on the charge under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC), framed on 2nd November, 1998, resulted in evidence of nineteen witnesses being recorded, the prime ones whereof are Parma Nand (PW -1), the contractor who had discovered the victim for the first time in injured condition; Pushpa (PW -6), the wife of the brother of the appellant; Dhanpati (PW -7), mother of the appellant; Devender (PW -16) the brother of the deceased; and Dewan Singh (PW - 17), father of the deceased. There is one more public witness examined Mohender Singh (PW -18), an acquaintance. But his testimony is not of much consequence except for confirming that the deceased had been found in an injured condition in her matrimonial home.