GHANSHYAM GUPTA Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Instant appeal is preferred against the judgment and order dtd. 16/8/2016, passed in Sessions Trial No. 33 of 2014, State Vs. Ghansyam Gupa @ Ghansyam Vaish, by the court of 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Haridwar. By it, the appellant has been convicted under Sec. 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment with a fine of Rs.5,000.00. In default of payment of fine, to undergo, imprisonment for a further period of one year.

(2.) Facts necessary to appreciate the controversy, briefly stated, are as follows. On 9/10/2013, the appellant alongwith a woman took a room on rent in Chitragupt Dharamshala, Haridwar ("the Dharamshala"). He was given room No.1 on the first floor. When on 10/10/2013, till 2:00 p.m., the appellant did not check out, PW1 Jagdish Prasad Saxena, the informant, who was the Manager and Trustee of the Dharamshala alongwith his son PW4 Rajeev Saxena knocked at the door. When they did not get any response, they approached the room from behind through balcony. The door on the balcony was open. When PW1 Jagdish Prasad Saxena and PW4 Rajeev Saxena entered into the room, they did not find any person there, but a woman was lying on the floor below a bed. She was not responding to any call. PW1 Jagdish Prasad Saxena lodged a First Information Report on 10/10/2013 at 2:20 p.m. and Case Crime No. 763 of 2013 under Sec. 302 IPC was lodged against the appellant.

(3.) In fact, in the FIR, Jagdish Prasad Saxena raised a suspicion that it is the appellant who had killed his daughter and ran from the back door. After lodging of the FIR, PW10 Dilmohan Singh visited the spot. He took certain fingerprints, and took the photographs. It was then revealed that, in fact, the deceased was one Upasana, the daughter of the appellant, who had married to a person in Lucknow, but she had divorced him. She was in relationship with a person of different religion, due to which, the appellant and his family members were not happy. The dispute had reached to the Police Station Laxman Jhula, District Pauri Garhwal on 29/9/2013, where a text was written by the deceased that she wanted to marry another person, but her parents are not agreeable to it. They had come to visit Neelkanth and thereafter, they visited the Police Station. According to the text, the deceased had written that she willingly wants to accompany the appellant, her father and others. This text is Ex. A15. In fact, due to some mistake, two documents have been marked Ex. A15, but it makes less difference. It has been proved by PW11 Constable Bhupendra Singh, who was then posted at Police Station Laxman Jhula, District Pauri Garhwal. According to him, this text Ex. A15 was written and signed by the appellant and the deceased. This document was taken into custody by PW10 Dilmohan Singh. The recovery memo was prepared. The inquest report of the dead body was prepared. At the time of inquest, the dead body was found below a bed. The ceiling fan was running. Various other articles were taken into custody by the police, which include the broken glass of the spectacles, which was lying on the bed and one of its glass was below the legs of the deceased. The post mortem of the deceased was conducted on 11/10/2013. According to PW12 Dr. Sandeep Nigam, the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation.