SAROJANI DEVI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -THIS appeal, preferred under section 374 of Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (herein after referred as Cr. P. C.), is directed against the judgment and order dated 15. 2. 1991, passed by learned Sessions Judge, Pauri Garhwal, in sessions Trial No. 13 of 1989, whereby the accused/appellants Sarojani Devi and madhwanand, are convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal code, 1860 (herein after referred as I. P. C.), for commission of murder of one Km. Kiran, and under Section 304 Part II read with section 34 I. P. C. (as well as under Section 314/34 I. P. C.)for causing death of Smt. Manju and under Section 201 read with section 34 I. P. C. for causing disappearance of their bodies from the place of incident. Each one of the convicts is sentenced to imprisonment for life under Section 302 read with Section 34 I. P. C. , to rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years under section 304 Part II read with Section 34 i. P. C. and rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years under Section 201 read with Section 34 I. P. C.

(2.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties and perused the lower court record.

(3.) PROSECUTION story in brief is that accused/appellants madhwanand and sarojani Devi are husband and wife, who were working as Ward Boy and Ward Ayah respectively in District Government Hospital, Pauri. They used to live in the Government quarter, allotted to them in the campus of the hospital. Smt. Manju (one of the deceased), wife of Dharmendra Singh (PW15), had a pregnancy of five months. On 20. 8. 1988, she accompanied with her sister km. Kiran (another deceased) went to the quarter of the accused/appellants for the purposes of termination of pregnancy of smt. Manju. According to the prosecution, accused/appellants are not qualified to conduct the termination of five months pregnancy and yet they illegally tried to abort the foetus and consequently, in the process smt. Manju died. Thereafter to conceal their crime, they throttled Km. Kiran (sister of Manju)and committed her murder. It is alleged by the prosecution that thereafter the two accused/appellants threw the dead bodies in the night, down the road passing in front of their quarter. Complainant narendra Singh Gussain (PW 8) brother of the deceased, lodged First Information Report on 21. 8. 1988 with police station Pauri, stating that on 20. 8. 1988, when he came back to his house from his office at 6. 00 p. m. he was told by his mother that Manju and kiran, who had gone to hospital for some treatment had not returned back. On this, complainant made search for the two in both the hospitals (male and female) but he could not find his sisters on that day. Oh the next day in the morning, when he went in search of his sisters, he was told by minor daughter of accused/appellants that Kiran along with another girl had come to their house on previous day but she (minor daughter of the accused/appellants)had gone thereafter to her village. Thereafter complainant narendra Singh Gussain, who was accompanied by his maternal uncle Jagdeep Singh rawat (PW 16) and uncle Puran Singh, enquired from accused-appellant Sarojani devi about the missing girls, who did not disclose about the whereabouts of the girls. Finally, the complainant along with his aforesaid two relatives found that in front of the staff quarters of the hospital there was crowd. 'when they asked about what had happened, it was told that dead bodies of two girls are lying down the road. Complainant found that the dead bodies were of his sisters. Suspecting commission of murder of the two, he lodged First Information report (Ext. A9) at 10. 30 a. m. with the police station Pauri on the basis of which, check report (Ext. A14) was prepared and necessary entry in the general diary at serial No. 16 was made, copy of which is Ext. A15. Crime No. 42 of 1988, was registered under Section 302 I. P. C. against accused/appellant Sarojani. The crime was investigated by Chetan Swaroop (PW17), In-charge inspector of the Police Station, Pauri, who went to the spot and got prepared inquest report (Ext. A3) of dead body of Smt. Manju and inquest report (Ext. A4) of the dead body km. Kiran. The police further got prepared sketch (Ext. A20 and Ext. A21) of the dead bodies. The dead bodies were sent for postmortem examination on the same day i. e. 21. 8. 1988. Autopsy was conducted on both the dead bodies by Dr. P. C. Fularia (PW1)and his two associates namely Dr. C. P. Dimri and Dr. R. K. Saxena. After postmortem examination the team of doctors prepared autopsy reports, Ext. A1 relating to the post-mortem examination of dead body of Smt. Manju and Ext. A2 relating to post-mortem examination of dead body of kiran. The cause of death of Manju could not be ascertained by team of doctors but as to death of Kiran, three doctors opined that she had died due to asphyxia as a result of strangulation. Investigating Officer interrogated the witnesses and prepared site plans (Ext. A25 and Ext. A26 ). After arrest of accused/appellants, Sarojani Devi and Madhwanand, the police requested Shri gaya Prasad, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (PW 13) to record the confessional statement of the accused, who recorded the confessional statement of accused/appellants madhwanand and Sarojani Devi (Ext. A11 and Ext. A12 ). The police during investiga tion found handkerchief (Ext. 1) of Kiran (deceased) from the house of the accused/appellants and also recovered rope (Ext. 2)by which she was strangulated. An identification was conducted of the recovered handkerchief by Shri H. S. Chaturvedi, another Sub-Divisional Magistrate (PW14 ). During investigation, the police recovered two scissors, two artery forceps, one used drip set, one sealed drip set, one sealed packet of copper T. , two bottles of liquid paraffin, two used injections of phials of t. T. , two injections of cintosin etc. along with aforementioned handkerchief in the presence of Dr. Rajiv Hatwal and pharmacist K. S. Rawat (PW3) and prepared memorandum Ext. A6. After completion of the investigation, charge-sheet (Ext. A27) was filed by the Investigating Officer against both the accused Sarojani Devi and madhwanand for their trial in respect of offences punishable under Sections 302 and 2011. P. C.