HARISH CHANDRA Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, learned counsel for the appellant, and Mr. Nand Prakash Shukla, learned AGA for the State, were heard at length.

(2.) Under challenge in the instant criminal appeal is the judgment and order dated 10.08.1999 passed by 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Unnao, in Sessions Trial No.671 of 1996 arising out of Case Crime No.313 of 1996, Police Station Gangaghat, District Unnao, whereby the present appellant Harish Chandra was convicted for the offence under Section 302 IPC and was sentenced with imprisonment for life. However, co-accused Kallu was acquitted of the charge under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 IPC. There was one more accused namely Gopal son Ahloo Raidas but his case was separated on 02.07.1998 as he was declared to be a juvenile.

(3.) In brief, the case of the prosecution was that complainant Raju lodged a first information report at Police Station Gangaghat, District Unnao, on 20.07.1996 at 1810 hours at a distance of 24 kilometers from the place of incident alleging therein that he had purchased an agricultural land five years prior to the incident from Rajaram and Bhagwan Deen, who were residents of village Mahanand Purwa. Appellant Harish Chandra had taken the possession of this land unlawfully. Hence, there was enmity between the parties. It was alleged that on 20th July 1996, elder brother of the informant namely Ram Balak was lying in a hut in the guava grove of Hosey Raidas. Informant, his nephew Ram Lal and Tikkan were looking after the guava grove of Chhotey Lal situated nearby. At about 02.00 PM informant and these persons heard the cries of Ram Balak from the hut of Hosey Raidas whereupon they rushed towards the spot. When they reached near the place of incident, they saw that accused persons were causing hurt to Ram Balak with knife after felling him on the ground. On the alarm raised by the witnesses accused persons escaped towards north. The witnesses chased the accused persons and succeeded to arrest appellant Harish Chandra within grove along with the blood stained knife. The informant and witnesses then went to the hut and found that Ram Balak was dead and found a cut injury on his neck. Complainant Raju got the first information report of this case scribed by one Ramesh Chandra and lodged the same at the police station Gangaghat at 06.10 PM whereupon the case was registered and investigation proceeded. After registration of the case, inquest proceedings were conducted at 07.15 PM and after completing necessary formalities, the dead body was sent for postmortem. Appellant Harish Chandra was taken into custody. The knife which was recovered by the villagers at the time of arrest of the appellant was handed over to the Investigating Officer and its memo was prepared. Blood stained as well as plain earth and the blood stained knife were taken into custody and the same were sent along with clothes of the deceased for chemical examination. As per report of the Forensic Science Laboratory the said articles except plain earth were found to be blood stained. The postmortem on the body of the deceased was conducted on 21.07.1996 at 01.30 PM. The duration of death was about one day and the following ante-mortem injury was reported by the doctor:-