M.VENKAT RAO Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) JUDGMENT of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bolangir, in Sessions Case No. 130/B of 1996 -97 convicting the appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentencing him to undergo R.I. for life is impugned in this Criminal Appeal.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution is that the appellant was working as an Assistant Driver in the Indian Railways and at the time of occurrence he was posted at Bolangir. About one and half months prior to the date of occurrence the appellant had taken a house on rent near the Railway Station Road belonging to the informant (P.W.1) and he was staying in the said rented house with his wife M. Jayalaxmi (deceased) and two small children. In the evening of 20.8.1996 the deceased was seen alive by the informant and his wife (P.W.2). The informant's family was staying nearby. On 21.8.1996 till 11 a.m., wife of the informant (P.W.2) did not see the deceased and she intimated the said fact to the informant (P.W.1). Though the informant did not give much emphasis on this information,however, at about 1.30 p.m. P.W.2 discovered that the back door of the rented house of the appellant had been closed from inside and blood was seeping out under the door leaves of the back door. Thereafter P.W.2 informed the said fact to the informant and they asked the appellant as to why blood was seeping through the back door as well as whereabouts of the deceased. The further case of the prosecution is that on being questioned, the appellant admitted to have killed his wife on the previous night because of domestic quarrel. The informant thereafter lodged an F.I.R. in Bolangir Town Police Station. Investigation was taken up and on completion of investigation charge sheet for commission of offence under Section 302 I.P.C. was submitted.

(3.) IN order to prove the charge, the prosecution has examined as many as 14 witnesses in all, out of whom P.W.1 is the informant and P.W.2 is the wife of the informant. P.W.3 is an advocate and all the three above witnesses are stated to be the witnesses to an extra -judicial confession. P.Ws.10 and 11 are Doctors who conducted the post mortem examination. Rests of the witnesses are all seizure witnesses and police officials.