SETU RAM Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the impugned judgment and order dated 7th May, 2010, the accused appellant Setu Ram has been held guilty of the offence under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life nay a fine of rupees twenty thousand as well. The said judgment and order under appeal has been passed by the Sessions Judge, Pauri Garhwal in Sessions Trial No. 21/2009, pertaining to Crime No. 748/2009, PS Kotdwar.

(2.) The circumstances, which led to the prosecution of the accused Setu Ram, in nutshell, are that on 8.4.2009, Sub Inspector Pratap Singh and Constable Dharmendra Kumar were on patrolling duty in Kotdwar city. At around 1.20 PM, when they were going from Jhanda Chowk towards Cinema Road, they saw a woman and a man, of Nepali origin, quarrelling with each other near R.S. Electronics. The woman was telling that she would go to the house of her parents in Nepal, whereas the man responded to her by saying that he would not allow her to go to Nepal at any cost. When these policemen were about to reach near those struggling man and woman in order to pacify them, the said person of Nepali origin assaulted that Nepali woman on her neck with a knife and thereafter started striking his own head on the road saying that he would also die there itself. Those policemen called the ambulance and removed those Nepali man and woman to the hospital. However, the injured woman succumbed to her injuries while on way to the hospital. Sub Inspector Pratap Singh (PW1) lodged the report (Ex. Ka-2) about the incident stating further therein that the said Nepali man, being intoxicated and injured, was lying unconscious in the hospital. Along with the report, the informant also submitted the bloodstained knife, which he had recovered from the hand of the accused immediately after the commission of crime. Recovery memo of the weapon is Ex. Ka-1.

(3.) Pursuant to the lodging of FIR, Case Crime No. 748/2009 under Section 302 IPC was registered against the accused. Inspector SS Bisht (PW5), the then Station Officer of Kotdwar Police Station, took charge of the investigation. Inquest report Ex. Ka-4 was prepared on the date of incident itself, wherein the Panches recorded their unanimous opinion that the deceased died on account of the injuries, which she suffered in her neck.