JAGDISH SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) JUDGMENT This is a criminal jail appeal pre­ferred against the judgment and order dated 24-8-2007 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Tehri Garhwal, New Tehri in ST No. 10/2006, State Vs. Jagdish Singh, whereby the learned Addl. Sessions Judge has convicted the accused-appellant for the offence pun­ishable under Section 326 IPC and sen­tenced him to undergo rigorous impris­onment for the period of seven years with a fine of rupees two thousand only. It was further directed that in default of payment of fine, the appellant would undergo rigorous imprisonment for an­other period of three months.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution, in brief, is that an F.I.R. was lodged by the complainant/victim Smt. Sita Devi on 15-10-2005 at about 16:10 hours against the present appellant Jagdish Singh alleg­ing therein that she and the appellant Jagdish Singh were living together since 1984 and they had two sons aged about 18 years and 12 years. On the date of the incident i.e. on 09-10-2005, the accused appellant Jagdish Singh poured acid on her person consequently, she suffered bum injuries on her face and body. Thereafter she was taken to the government hospi­tal for treatment. The victim Smt. Sita Devi further alleged that the appellant Jagdish Singh had been harassing her for several days and also tried to kill her and used to torture her physically as well as mentally. She further stated that she be­longs to Valmiki community and had no relatives in the city; as such she had to tolerate the exploitation of the appellant. The report was written by Geeta Pande on the dictation of the victim Smt. Sita Devi and thereafter, it was lodged in the po­lice station. The matter was investigated by the police and eventually, chargesheet was submitted against the accused appel­lant before the court concerned.

(3.) IN order to prove its case, the pros­ecution examined the complainant/victim Smt. Sita Devi PW1, Govind Singh PW2, Constable Sanjay Kumar PW3, the land-lord-Dhoom Singh PW4, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Singh Panwar PW5 and the Inves­tigating Officer- Mahesh Joshi PW6.