PREMASILA KUMBHAR Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant having been convicted under Section 302, IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepur in Sessions Case No. 45/11 of 1998-1999 has preferred this appeal from jail.

(2.) Appellant is the wife of Muturu Kumbhar, mother of the deceased Mita Kumbhar and daughter-in-law of the informant Teva Kumbhar. The case of the prosecution is that on 17.08.1998 Muturu Kumbhar (the husband of the Appellant) and his eldest daughter were absent from house. In that night, the informant, her other two sons and her mother-in-law took their dinner but the Appellant did not take her dinner. After dinner, while the informant, her sons Mana (P.W. 2) and Sesa and her mother-in-law slept in the verandah of their house, the Appellant with her daughter (deceased) slept in the dhaba house (ceiling room). In the next morning, the Appellant got up from her bed and told the informant, her mother-in-law and her other family members that somebody had taken away the right hand of her daughter and she was lying motionless on the cot. The informant, her mother-in-law and sons rushed into the room. They saw the daughter of the Appellant lying dead on the cot and her right hand below the elbow joint was detached and was missing. On 18.08.1998, informant Teva Kumbhar (P.W. 1) along with her sons P.W. 2 and Sesa went to Binka Police Station where she lodged an oral report which was reduced to writing by the O.I.C. (P.W. 7). On the basis of the report, the I.O. went to the house of the Appellant along with the witnesses and found there in the Dhaba house the dead body of Mita Kumbhar (deceased) lying on the cot with a number of injuries on her person. He held inquest over the dead body, sent the same to C.H.C., Binka for autopsy. He also recovered the severed hand of the deceased from the 'Fuli' (a hole in the wall of the house where articles are kept) at the instance of the Appellant only after her arrest. On completion of investigation he submitted charge-sheet against the Appellant.

(3.) The plea of the Appellant was a complete denial of the prosecution case and her specific plea was that the severed hand was not recovered and seized by the police at her instance.