MELAKA JOGI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The trial court has held the charges against the appellant under section 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code established and having convicted the appellant for both these offences, has sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life for commission of offence of murder without passing any separate sentence for the other offences, after accepting the case of the prosecution that on April 8, 1979, during the night, the appellant, on returning from the market with P.W. 2 after purchasing a pair of buffaloes, asked his wife hereinafter referred to as the deceased to bring some turmeric water and as there was some delay, he entered inside, dragged the deceased out and first assaulted her by means of a oradabadi (M.O. 1) and after it broke into two pieces, he dealt kicks and blows on the neck and belly of the deceased and pressed the neck of the deceased by his leg for which the deceased groaned and succumbed to the injuries sustained by her and on the day following the appellant and his brother, who also stood trial being charged under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, cremated the dead body to cause evidence of the offence of murder to disappear to screen the appellant from legal punishment. The Court of Sessions acquitted the brother of the appellant of the charge under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code owing to want of evidence that he had knowledge of the commission of offence of murder.

(2.) To bring home the charges to the appellant, the prosecution has examined twelve witnesses of whom P.Ws. 2 to 5 and 9 were said to be the eye-witnesses to the occurrence. P.W. 7, the brother of the deceased, was the first informant. Of the witnesses to the occurrence, P.W.4 did not support the case of the prosecution and was put leading questions by it under section 154 of the Evidence Act. P. W. 5 had testified in his examination-in-chief as if he had seen the assault, but gave a go- by to it in his cross-examination by making a statement that he had not actually seen the occurrence, but had only heard the sounds of assault. There thus remained for consideration before the Court the evidence of P.Ws. 2, 3 and 9 which the trial court accepted and the conviction was mainly based thereon.

(3.) As the dead body had been cremated, no autopsy had been conducted. Some bones seized by the Investigating Officer from the burial ground were found to be those of a female person, but no ante-mortem injury had been noticed on any of the bones. There was thus no medical or scientific evidence that the death of the deceased was homicidal in nature. The plea of the appellant was one of denial and false implication. According to him, the deceased had given birth of a child sometime prior to her death and she had become anaemic and had died a natural death.