RAJ KUMAR PATRA Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant herein was a stranger at village Parua under Tezpur Police Station. He came to the said village with a woman (the deceased) in the evening hours on 27.5.2005 and took shelter in the house of the informant. The appellant introduced himself as the husband of the deceased woman. In the early morning on the next day, the appellant himself reported to the inmates of the house that his wife was missing. After some time, the informant went to a nearby sugarcane field to answer the nature's call where he found the dead body of the wife of the accused. On being questioned by the family members and other villagers, the accused admitted before them that he had killed his wife as she was insisting him to marry her formally. On the basis of this admission of the accused, PW 2 lodged a written FIR and after investigation charge sheet was submitted and the accused/appellant was tried for committing an offence of murder. After the trial the accused has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code vide impugned judgment dated 4.2.2006 passed by the then learned Sessions Judge, Sonitpur, Tezpur in Sessions Case No. 176 of 2005. By the said judgment, the appellant was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and also to pay fine of Rs. 1000.00 with default sentence of further RI for two months.

(2.) BEING aggrieved with the conviction and sentence, the convict has filed this appeal from jail.

(3.) ALL these three witnesses deposed in unison that the accused had introduced himself as the husband of the deceased. The witnesses have further deposed that on the relevant night both the accused and the deceased slept together in a room. However, in the morning, the woman was found missing and after some time her dead body was located in a nearby sugarcane field. PWs 2 and 4 have also deposed that on being quizzed the accused/appellant confessed before them that he himself had killed the woman to get rid of her as the woman was pressurizing the accused to marry her formally. However, PW 5 has deposed that the confession was made in the police station.