RAGHUNATH BHANJ Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant faced trial in the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Puri in Sessions Trial No. 250 of 2007 for offence punishable under section 302 Indian Penal Code for committing murder of his wife Sulochana Bhjanja (hereafter the "deceased") in the night on 26/27.2.2007 at village Brahamanabada under Delanga Police Station in the district of Puri. The learned trial Court vide impugned judgment and order dated 27.6.2008 held the appellant guilty under section 302 IPC and accordingly convicted him of such offence and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/ -, in default, to undergo R.I. for six months more.

(2.) THE prosecution case, as per the FIR lodged by Deba Bhoi (P.W.6) on 27.2.2007 before Officer -in -charge of Delanga Police Station is that the deceased was his cousin sister and she had been to attend the obsequies of her grandmother to her paternal place and stayed there for about 20 days and returned to her matrimonial house on 26.2.2007 at about 7 p.m. with P.W.6. The deceased prepared food for her in -laws and everybody including the appellant and his father Sikhar Bhanj (P.W.1) took their dinner. The father -in -law and mother -in -law of the deceased slept in one room, P.W.6 and younger brother of the appellant namely Jagannath slept in another room and the appellant and the deceased slept in the 3rd room. During the night, P.W. 6 heard some quarrel between the appellant and the deceased. The younger brother of the appellant Jagannath started crying for which P.W.6 took him and left him near his parents and again came back to sleep. In the early morning at about 6 O' Clock P.W.6 called the deceased but she did not wake up. The appellant was standing outside the house. When the parents of the appellant asked him about the deceased, the appellant told that there was disturbance between him and the deceased last night for which he had killed the deceased. Lighting a lamp, all of them saw that the deceased was lying dead with bleeding injuries. P.W.6 immediately rushed to his sister's house and intimated about the incident and thereafter came to Delanga Police Station to lodge the FIR.

(3.) IN order to prove its case, the prosecution examined 14 witnesses.