DURGA RUHI DAS Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal No. 243 of 1983 arises out of Sessions Trial No. 26 of 1983 (Sessions Case No. 28 of 1983) held by the learned Additional Sessions Judge at Asansol. In the said trial the appellant has been convicted under S. 304 (Part I), I.P.C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for ten years, by the judgment and order dt. 19-8-83. The charge against the appellant was that on or about the 23rd of June, 1982 at Sealdanga, Chamarpara, P. S. Kulti, District Burdwan, he caused the death of his wife Smt. Lakshmi Ruhi Das, with the intention of causing such bodily injury as was likely to cause death and thereby committed an offence punishable under S. 304 of the I.P.C.

(2.) The prosecution case, briefly stated, is that on the 23rd June, 1982, during day time, the appellant assaulted his wife Lakshmi at his house at Chamarpara, Sealdanga, Kulti, following a domestic quarrel between his wife and himself, and that as a result of such assault, Lakshmi died at about 8.30 p.m. on the same night. The prosecution has examined ten witnesses and has relied on the retracted confession of the appellant made before the learned S.D.J.M., Asansol on 25-6-82. The said confession was retracted by the accused during the said Sessions Trial.

(3.) The defence has not adduced any evidence. The defence of the accused as will appear from the trend of cross-examination and answers of the accused in his examination under S. 313, Cr. RC, is that his wife Lakshmi fell down from a ladder and that as a result of such fall, she ultimately died.