HARI SHANKER Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and its corresponding order of sentence dated 19-6-1985 passed by Sri J. B. Singh, II Additional Sessions Judge, Pratapgarh requiring the appellant to undergo imprisonment for life for an offence u/S. 302 and six months rigorous imprisonment for an offence u/S. 323 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) To trace a short history of the case, the appellant was prosecuted by the police of police station, Jethwara, district Pratapgarh on the allegation that on 2-9-1984 sometimes between 6 and 7 A.M. (morning) in a fit of insanity, he fatally assaulted his wife with a Kulhari in their residential house at village Tola Sarai Indrawat; the report was lodged at around 10.30 a.m. on the same day by his brother Dharam Raj P.W. 2 with the Moharrir Head Constable, Ravi Shanker Pandey P.W. 8. The intervening distance between the place of occurrence and the police station was stated to be about five kilometres. Immediately after registration of the case, P.W. 9 Ganesh Shukla, the then S.I. In-charge of the police station rushed to the place of the accused and found that he was sitting inside the house on bolting the door from the inner side; simultaneously the door was also found bolted from outside. In the presence of a large crowd including P.W. 7 Mahadeo and one Raj Ram, the Investigating Officer arrested the accused who was found sitting by the side of the dead body with a bloodstained Tilak on his forehead and reading "Hanuman Chalisa". Incense sticks were burning there and some Pooja articles were lying nearby. The Investigating Officer also recovered a bloodstained Kulhari and Gandasa besides some blood-stained earth from the place of occurrence.

(3.) The investigation revealed that on the day of occurrence, the accused and his wife were last seen together by their neighbours Smt. Anara Devi P.W. 3 and Smt. Ram Pati P.W. 6. Shortly thereafter P.W. 1 Baldeo @ Bachai and P.W. 4 Smt. Bhagwani Devi, the parents of the accused had also seen him quarrelling with his wife Smt. Savitri Devi and when she was under assault P.W. 5 Mathura Teli had tried to intervene with a view to rescue her, but in his turn he was also assaulted and injured by the accused appellant.