KAMLANDRA SINGH RAWAT Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal challenges the judgment and order of conviction rendered by the learned Sessions Judge, Udham Singh Nagar at Rudrapur dated 6.1.2012, whereby the appellant was found guilty for the offence of Sec. 302 IPC and has appropriately been sentenced for the same. The case pertains to the crime number 6067/2007, PS Kashipur and depicts a mind startling, inconceivable cold blooded murder of a woman aged 35 years, which was cruelly executed at the hands of her husband within the four corners of their bedroom. Kamlandra Singh Rawat (for brevity, hereinafter referred to as 'Mr. Rawaf) was a literally educated person and employed as an Instructor in the trade of Motor Mechanic in the Industrial Training Institute based at Kashipur and the couple were the parents of as many as three children, out of whom two elder ones Km. Rashmi Rawat, aged 17 years, and Master Rohit Rawat, aged 18 years, have deposed against their father in the witness box. The family was residing on the ground floor dwelling unit of a quadruple residential complex within the close corners of training institute. The couple though blessed with two sons and one daughter, out of their wedlock, but the unfortunate aspect was that Mr. Rawat was nurturing the estrange relationship with his spouse suspecting her illicit intimacy with some police constable of a nearby Police Outpost. So, in this backdrop, it was the late evening of 26.11.2007 when all the three children were either had slept or in the process of sleeping with their mother, Mr. Rawat present in the adjoining room gave a conjugal call to his wife at around 9.30 PM with the assurance that he will not beat her any further. Hearing these words, the wife Smt. Krishna Rawat @ Phoolmati Rawat acceded the request of her husband and left her children to be in the company of the husband. Soon after P.W. 4 and P.W. 5 heard some verbal spat between the couple, but perhaps such quarrel could not escalate at that moment and the family went asleep. Now, it was the morning of next day 27.11.2007. Still the door of the couple was closed for quite good time inasmuch as up to 10.45 AM. Prior to such time, even in the early morning at about 6 A.M., P.W. 4 and P.W. 5 knocked the door of their parents with the intention to get it opened. Their father threatened them with dire consequences, so much to be killed with the axe. This threatening voice made the children silent. Thereafter at about 9 A.M., the children heard the screams of their mother. Hearing such shrieks, they (P.W. 4 and P.W. 5) approached the neighbours and requested them to make the ring call to the police. With their assistance, P.W. 4 herself gave the information to the nearby Police Outpost telephonically which was recorded in the General Diary and has been got proved by the prosecution as Ex. Ka -1. Having received this telephonic information, Assistant Sub Inspector Yad Ram Singh (P.W. 1) along with Head Constable Jagdish Prasad (P.W. 2) reached at the spot and took the neighbour Kishori Lal, residing in the same complex, with them and knocked the door of the concerned room. Still, cries were surging piercing across the walls and door of such room. They all mandated the culprit to open the door, but their asking was unheeded. Police personnel then forcibly pushed the door to get it opened. They all found the fearsome scene at the spot where Mr. Rawat had hacked his wife with multiple blows of axe. She being blood soaked was lying on the double bed of the room and writhing in pain. She was almost mortally wounded, while Mr. Rawat was standing there with the bloodstained axe in his hands and at the same time, abusing his wife with invectives, saying she had crossed all the limits of raveling dispositions. So, he will not let her live alive. ASI immediately snatched the bloodstained axe from the hands of Mr. Rawat and managed to commute Smt. Krishna Rawat to the Government Hospital with the assistance of Constable Harish Chand and Pradeep Bhatt.

(2.) Subsequently, ASI returned to the Outpost and lodged the FIR Ex. Ka -4. Chick report whereof is Ex. Ka -3, which was reduced into writing on 27.11.2007 at 2 PM by Head Constable Jagdish Prasad (P.W. 2). ASI also picked the pieces of floor with or without blood and collected the blood -splashed bed sheet. The recovery memo Ex. Ka -2 was prepared under the signature of neighbouring witness Gopal Datt Sharma (P.W. 8).

(3.) Struggling to her life, Smt. Krishna Rawat breathed her last around 7.30 PM while, having been referred to the higher centre, on the way to Sanyi Hospital, Moradabad. By that time, Mr. M.S. Rawat (real brother of deceased) got telephonic information about the incident. So, he rushed to the spot from village Padul, Pauri Garhwal. He could reach up to the late evening in the L.D. Bhatt Government Hospital, Kashipur to find his sister no more.