RAMESHBHAI BUDHIYABHAI RATHOD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been sentenced inter-alia to life imprisonment on his conviction for the offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code by impugned judgment and order dated 18.01.2007 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Surat at Vyara in Sessions Case No.48 of 2006. The appellant is therefore in appeal before this Court questioning the impugned judgment and order.

(2.) The prosecution case was totally based upon circumstantial evidence as also extra judicial confession allegedly made by the appellant before his brother. All the material witnesses turned hostile. However, homicidal death of the deceased wife of the appellant was successfully established to have occurred any time between 21:30 hours of 1st June, 2006, and 8:00 hours on 2nd June, 2006, when, apart from the deceased, the appellant was the lone person available at his residence where the deceased was found dead in the morning of 2nd June, 2006. The fact that the son of the appellant was away has been established from the testimony of P.W.7 Ashok Rameshbhai, who has testified that he was away to view a movie in the night.

(3.) In Trimukh Maroti Kirkan Vs. State of Maharashtra, 2006 10 SCC 681 particularly paras 12, 13, 14 and 15 which are quoted herein, the principles to be considered for sustaining the conviction on circumstantial evidence and those to be considered when the offence takes place inside the privacy of a house have been laid down.