RAMESH Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal has been preferred by the appellants against the judgment and order dated 01.11.2012 passed by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Haridwar in Session Trial No. 270 of 2006. Appellant no. 1 has been convicted under Section 302/34 IPC and has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Appellant no. 2 has been convicted under Section 201 IPC and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years.

(2.) Both the complainant as well as the accused are agricultural labourers/marginal agriculturist of Village Kalasia, Tehsil Laksar, Police Station Khanpur, District Haridwar. As per the first information report registered at 11:10 A.M. on 30.07.2006 at P.S. Khanpur, District Haridwar, the complainant, who is the father of the deceased, says that today at about 07:30 A.M., Ramesh (Appellant No. 1), took his son along with him on pretext that they would be taking out fire wood from river Ganges. This Court has been apprised that each year during monsoon, tree branches and even fallen trees are carried to the shore by the river, which is customarily picked by the villagers for their fuel. At about 08:30 A.M., he was informed by Samay Singh (who is another resident of the same village) that the dead body of Pradeep (i.e. son of the complainant) is lying in the field of Dhyan Singh. On this information, he reached the spot i.e. the agriculture field of Dhyan Singh, where he found the dead body of his son lying in the agriculture field. His mouth was full with sand and mud. He picked up the dead body of his son and brought it to the house and took out the mud from its mouth. Then he narrates that the day before the incident, his son had taken away some 'animal fodder', from the field of the accused Ramesh and the accused had threatened that his son would be punished for this act. In the FIR, the complainant says that he is sure that his son has been killed by Ramesh!

(3.) The inquest started on the same day i.e. on 30.07.2006 at 12:30 PM in the afternoon and continued till 01:30 PM. The opinion of the "Panchas" was that the boy has been suffocated to death. During inquest, it was also noticed that prior to the death of the deceased, he had also urinated and passed stool. The postmortem was conducted on 31.07.2006, the next day. The postmortem report also shows anti-mortem injuries, such as abraded contusion on the face, nasal bone was fractured and both the lungs were congested. As per the opinion of the doctor the cause of death was asphyxia as a result of suffocation due to smothering.