RAMESH CHANDRA PANT Vs. STATE OF UTTARANCHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal, preferred Under Section 374 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Cr.P.C.), is directed against the judgment and order dated 03.09.2002 passed by learned Sessions Judge, Bageshwar in Sessions Trial No. 2 of 2002 whereby the accused/appellant has been convicted Under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter to be referred as I.P.C.) and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) PROSECUTION story, in brief, is that the complainant - Kaustubanand Joshi R/o Village Lesani, Patwari Circle Banlekh, District Bageshwar moved an application on 15.12.2001 to Naib Tehsildar, Bageshwar alleging therein that his brother -in -law Ramesh Chandra Pant (appellant) murdered his sister Smt. Sobha Pant at about 09:00 a.m. in a room. It was further alleged that on receiving the information he went to the Patwari who was not available so the application was moved to the Naib Tehsildar, Bageshwar. The First Information Report (Ext. Ka. 1) was endorsed with the order to the Patwari, Banlekh for taking necessary action. Accordingly, the check F.I.R. (Ext. Ka. 6) was written on 15.12.2001 at 04:00 p.m. and thereafter the case was registered against the accused - Ramesh Chandra Pant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of I.P.C. Sri Ramesh Ram - Patwari of that area inspected the spot and prepared the site plan (Ext. Ka. 12). The room of occurrence was got opened and the accused was arrested from that room. The arrest memo was prepared which is Ext. Ka. 11. The blood stained payjama was taken into possession and memo was prepared which is Ext. Ka. 17. The inquest report of the dead body of Smt. Sobha Pant (deceased) was prepared which is Ext. Ka. 7. The dead body was covered with cloth and was sealed. The dead body was found lying on a Dari, which was stained with blood and the same was taken into possession and memo (Ext. Ka. 4 and 10) was prepared. The blood stained cement piece and simple piece of cement was taken into possession from the room and memo was prepared (Ext. Ka. 5 and 9). An iron pipe stained with blood was also taken into possession from the spot and memo was prepared which was marked as Ext. Ka. 3 and 8. A letter to the Superintendent Community Health Centre, Bageshwar was written with the request for conducting the postmortem on the dead body of the deceased. Thereafter, dead body was sent to the postmortem and the papers challan lash (Ext. Ka. 13), photo lash (Ext. Ka. 14), sample of seal (Ext. Ka. 15) were prepared. Dr. Deepak Garbiyal conducted the postmortem of the body of the deceased on 16.12.2001 at 01:05 p.m. He recorded the ante mortem injuries and opined in the autopsy report that the deceased died due to shock & heamorrhage, as a result of ante mortem injuries. After completing of the investigation of the case, Ramesh Ram (P.W.6) submitted the chargesheet (Ext. Ka. 18) before the court concerned against the accused/appellant.

(3.) ON this, prosecution got examined P.W. 1 Kaustuvanand - he is the brother of the deceased and who scribed the First Information Report; P.W. 2 Naveen Chandra Joshi - He is the eyewitness and nephew of the deceased - Sobha Devi; P.W. 3 Suresh Chandra - eyewitness; P.W.4 Dr. Deepak Garbiyal - Formal witness of postmortem; P.W.5 Shanker Dutt Joshi - eyewitness and P.W. 6 Ramesh Ram - Investigating Officer.