MAHESH SONI Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal against conviction under Section 374 (2) of the Cr.P.C. filed on behalf of the appellant/accused Mahesh Soni is directed against the judgment dated 29.05.2004 passed by the 2 nd Additional Sessions Judge, Satna in Sessions Trial No. 264/2003, whereby accused/appellant Mahesh Soni was convicted under Section 302 of the I.P.C. for committing murder of his wife Kanchan Bai and was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine in the sum of Rs.1,000/-. In default of payment of fine, he was directed to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months.

(2.) (a). The prosecution case before the trial Court may briefly be stated thus. Accused Mahesh Soni was husband of the deceased Kanchan Bai. They had four children. The eldest son Manoj (PW-3) was aged 13 years. The couple had three daughters including Roshni (PW-1), who was 11 years old. Suresh (PW-7) is brother of the accused Mahesh. At night on 25.02.2003, accused Mahesh had slept along with Kanchan Bai in the bedroom of their house along with his three daughters including Roshni (PW-1). Son Manoj (PW-3) slept in the Varanda. At around 04:15 a.m. on 26.02.2003, daughter Priyanka was calling her mother as she wanted to go to the bathroom; however, deceased Kanchan did not respond; whereon, she called her brother Manoj. When Manoj woke up, he found that his father was not in the room and his mother was lying dead. There were throttling marks on her throat. Meanwhile, at around 04:00 a.m., accused Mahesh went to his brother Suresh, who lived in adjacent part of the house and told him that he had killed his wife and he was going. He asked Suresh to look after his children. Thereafter, Suresh called Heeralal and told him about the matter. They went together to Sarpanch, Shivpal Singh (PW-4) and reported the matter to him. Sarpanch advised them to lodge the FIR in the police station. Suresh and Heeralal returned and went inside the accused Mahesh's room and saw that the deceased Kanchan was lying dead in the room. Villagers searched accused and he was found sitting under a Peepal Tree in the Village; therefore, he was caught. Thereafter, Suresh went with Brijraj Singh by Jeep to Police Station. Brijraj Singh lodged the first information report at about 08:30 a.m. 2(b). During post-mortem examination, it was found that the deceased had died as a result of asphyxia caused by throttling. During investigation, six stubs of Bidi, six burnt matchsticks and three pieces of broken bangles were seized from the spot. A match box and nine Bidis were seized from the right hand side pocket of the shirt of the accused appellant upon his arrest.

(3.) The trial Court held on the basis of the statements of the prosecution witnesses that on the eve of the incident, the accused had slept along with his daughters and wife in the same room. Next morning, he was found missing and his wife was found dead having been throttled. Six stubs of smoked bidis and six burnt matchsticks were recovered from the spot. Bidis and Match box of the same make were recovered from the possession of the appellant accused at the time of the arrest; therefore, it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that in the night of the incident, the accused had slept with his wife and children. Therefore, the burden was upon the accused to explain the circumstance in which his wife had died; however, the accused had failed to discharge that burden; therefore, he was convicted under Section 302 of the I.P.C. for having throttled his wife to death.