STATE Vs. DEVENDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal, preferred under Section 378 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred as Cr.P.C.), is directed against the judgment and or­der dated 09.02.1994, passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Roorkee, in Sessions Trial No. 138 of 1990, whereby accused/respondent Devendra has been acquitted of charge of offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinaf­ter referred as I.P.C.).

(2.) HEARD learned counsel for the par­ties and perused the trial court's record.

(3.) THE Magistrate, on receipt of the charge sheet, after giving necessary cop­ies to the accused, as required under Section 207 of Cr.P.C., appears to have committed the case to the court of Ses­sions for trial. Learned Additional Ses­sions Judge, Roorkee, to whom the case was transferred, after hearing the par­ties, framed charge of offence punishable under Section 302 I.P.C. against the accused/respondent Devendra on 02.07.1991, to which the accused/re­spondent pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. On this, prosecution got ex­amined P.W.1 Tahendra, complainant and brother of the deceased, P.W.2 Baspal, father of the deceased, P.W.3 Subhash, P.W.4 Om Prakash, P.W.5 Dr. O.P. Sharma, who conducted postmor­tem examination, P.W.6 Ajay Kumar, Station House Officer, who completed the investigation, P.W.7 Vikram Singh and P.W.8 Sub Inspector K.S. Randhawa, who started investigation. All the Oral and documentary evidence was put to the accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C., in reply to which he alleged the same to be false. However, as to the unnatural death of the deceased the ac­cused/respondent did not deny the same. It is alleged by him that father and brother of the deceased demanded Rs.30,000/- after the death of Poonam and when the demand was not met, they lodged false First Information Report against him. In defence, on behalf of ac­cused/respondent D.W.1 Munesh, D.W.2 Aslam Khan and D.W.3 Sitaram, were got examined and three letters (Ext.B-1, Ext.B-2 and Ext.B-3) allegedly written by the deceased before her death, were got proved apart from the papers relating to her primary school education.