(1.) This criminal appeal arises out of the judgment and order dated 16.3.1983 passed by Vth Additional Sessions Judge, Bareilly in Sessions Trial No. 400 of 1982 (State Vs. Abdul Wahid) whereby the trial court by judgment and order convicted and sentenced the appellant to undergo imprisonment for life for an offence under section 302 IPC.
(2.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that the deceased Smt. Jahanivi daughter of the informant Fida Husain (P.W.-1) aged about 24 years at the time of her murder, was married to the accused Abdul Wahid about six years before the occurrence. Smt. Jahanivi used to live at her sasural i.e. the house of the accused Abdul Wahid situated at village Rata within P.S. Waziraganj, District Badaun. The informant Fida Husain went to the sasural of Smt. Jahanivi to meet her daughter wherein she told him that her husband appellant Abdul Wahid is accusing her of infidelity having illicit relations with Rashid (the elder brother of the accused-appellant Abdul Wahid) due to which accused Abdul Wahid was harassing and maltreating her. Hearing the said complaints of her daughter, on her insistence, the informant Fida Husain brought back his daughter to his house on the pretext that her mother was not well. The house of the informant is Pakka. There is a mosque towards the north of the house of the informant. The house of Gulam Husain is situated towards the south and the house of Nabi Husain is adjacent to that house. The house of Zahid Husain is situated towards the south of the house of the informant Fida Husain and Gulam Husain. Similarly, there is a door between the house of Gulam Husain and Nabi Husain also. The exit of all the three houses is in the lane situated towards the east. There are rooms towards the western side of the house of the informant Fida Husain, Gulam Husain and Nabi Husain in front of which there is an open verandah adjoining the courtyard in the east.
(3.) Couple of days before the occurrence, the accused Abdul Wahid went to his sasural for taking back his wife Smt. Jahanivi, however, the informant Fida Husain told him to take Smt. Jahanivi with him only after the festival of 'Koday'. The accused Abdul Wahid, however, insisted upon to take her back with him to his house and stayed back at his sasural for that purpose. In the morning of the day of occurrence also the accused Abdul Wahid started insisting on taking back Smt. Jahanivi at which Fida Husain told him bluntly that he will not send his daughter Smt. Jahanivi as the accused Abdul Wahid harasses and accuses her of infidelity and also told him (appellant) that he will re-marry her somewhere else. Upon which, the accused Abdul Wahid told Fida Husain that he would see as to how Smt. Jahanivi is re-married to some one else. On the night of the occurrence (i.e. between 8/9-5-1982) the deceased Smt. Jahanivi and the accused Abdul Wahid were sleeping together in the Verandah of house of his (first informant) brother Gulam Husain. Dibia was said to be burning at the spot at the time of occurrence. It was a moon lit night. Gulam Husain and Nabi Husain were not present in their houses, their rooms were closed while their courtyards were open. Informant and his wife were sleeping in the close vicinity of the place of occurrence. Around midnight, Fida Husain and his wife heard the cries and screams of his daughter Smt. Jahanivi, on which they both rushed to the scene and saw the accused Abdul Wahid sitting on the chest of Smt. Jahanivi tying a Chunni around her neck and strangulating her. The informant Fida Husain and his wife Smt. Bismilla raised an alarm, on which the witnesses Maseet Ullah and Zahid Husain reached there and saw the occurrence in the light of the lamp and in the moon light. The accused Abdul Wahid fled away merely in his underwear and Banyan leaving behind his shirt and pant. When the witnesses came near Smt. Jhanavi, they found her dead. The F.I.R. (Ext. Ka.1) regarding the occurrence was dictated by the informant to Mohammd Sayeed which was lodged at the police station Aonla. The dead body of the deceased Smt. Jahanivi was sent to mortuary where the post mortem on her dead body was conducted by Dr. K.S. Tiwari, P.W. 5 and Ex. Ka. 13 in the aforesaid post mortem report. The case was investigated by the S.O. Sri Sampat Singh who recorded the statements of the witnesses and also prepared the Site Plan Ex. Ka.3 and thereafter after completing the investigation submitted the charge sheet Ex. Ka. 10 against the accused Abdul Wahid.