BALABHAI SAMBHUBHAI SOLANKI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been filed by the appellant-original accused of Sessions Case No.32 of 1996 being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 12-2-1999 passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Surat, in Sessions Case No.32 of 1996 whereby he was convicted for the offence under Sec.302 of IPC to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months.

(2.) The short facts of the prosecution case are that on 17-1-1996 at about 15.30 hours Jaysukh Vaghasia was coming from his agricultural field on a bicycle and when he reached near the field of Pragjibhai Mohanbhai, he saw a scuffle between the appellant accused and deceased Maganbhai Mohanbhai Vaghasia. On seeing this, he threw his bicycle and ran towards the place of incident. When he entered the agricultural field, he saw at a distance of about 30 feet that the appellant accused was giving knife blow on the chest of the deceased and immediately tried to run away from the scene of offence. Due to severe injuries and profuse bleeding, deceased was not in a position to stand and, therefore, Jaysukh tried to control the victim but he could not. In the meanwhile, the deceased succumbed to the injuries sustained. He therefore went to the Village and informed the same to his distant uncle Dahyabhai Rudabhai Vaghasia, who was sitting at the entrance of the Village and narrated the incident in detail. Dayhabhai Rudabhai then went to Dhari Police Station and lodged the complaint. Said complaint was taken down by PSI, Dhari Police Station and handed over to PSO for registration. The said complaint was registered as Dhari Police Station I.C.R.No.5 of 1996 for the offence punishable under Sec.302 of IPC and also under Sec.135 of BP Act. PSO along with the FIR and yadi handed over the investigation to PSI, Mr.Rabari, who kept yadi and copy of FIR with investigation papers and went to the sim of Devla Village in the field of Pragjibhai where he called the panchas, prepared inquest panchnama in presence of panchas and also prepared the panchnama of scene of offence and seized the muddamal. He also recorded the statements of various witnesses and made a search for the accused. He also made arrangements to send the dead body of the deceased for performing the post mortem to Dhari Community Health Centre along with yadi, marnotar form, etc. He also made a search for the accused and arrested the accused on 18th January, 1996 by preparing arrest panchnama. He also seized the clothes worn by the accused at the time of incident under a panchnama and thereafter as accused expressed willingness to show the muddamal used in the commission of offence, he called two panchas to the Police Station and prepared primary panchnama to that effect there itself. Thereafter, he along with the police personnel and panchas proceeded to the place of incident in the Government jeep as directed by the accused and ultimately the accused took all the persons to the place where he hid the muddamal knife. He took out the knife from there and handed it over to the police and thereafter, second part of panchnama was prepared there itself by attaching the knife as muddamal. Meanwhile, as the Police Constable produced the clothes of the deceased worn at the time of incident which was given to him by the Medical Officer, same was also attached as muddamal by preparing panchnama. He also recorded statements of other witnesses and also made arrangements to send the muddamal to FSL. He also collected death certificate and post mortem report from the Medical Officer, Dhari Community Health Centre and on receipt of FSL report, they were kept with the investigation papers. At the end of investigation, he submitted the charge sheet against the accused into Court of concerned learned Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Dhari.

(3.) As the offence alleged against the accused was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, learned Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Dhari, committed the case to the Court of Sessions at Amreli where it was numbered as Sessions Case No.32 of 1996 and handed over to the learned Addl. Sessions Judge for disposing of the same on merits.