ABHIJIT PAUL Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal from jail is directed against a Judgment dtd. 16/3/2018 and an Order of Sentence dtd. 19/3/2018 passed by the Court of learned Additional District and Sessions Judge, FTC, Hojai at Sankardev Nagar ['the trial court', for short] in Sessions Case no. 25[N]/2016. By the said Judgment dtd. 16/3/2018, the accused-appellant has been found guilty of both the charges framed for the offences under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code ['IPC', for short] and Sec. 304B[2], IPC. Thereafter, by the Order of Sentence dtd. 19/3/2018, the accused-appellant has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.20,000.00, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for further 4 [four] months for the offence under Sec. 302, IPC. For the offence under Sec. 304B[2], IPC, the accused-appellant has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 [ten] years. Both the sentences are ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, in brief, was that the investigation was set into motion on receipt of a First Information Report ['FIR', for short] from one Smti. Sathi Nag before the Officer In-Charge, Hojai Police Station on 17/1/2016. In the said FIR, three persons including the accused-appellant, were named as accused. The accused-appellant was the husband of one Jhuma Paul, who was the daughter of the informant, Smti. Sathi Nag. The other two accused persons named in the FIR were the mother and the sister-in-law respectively of the accused-appellant.

(3.) In the FIR, the informant had inter alia alleged that her daughter was leading her conjugal life with the accused-appellant in a tenanted room at Govindapalli, Hojai for about last two years. It was alleged that the accused-appellant used to torture the daughter of the informant, both physically and mentally, demanding dowry. Unable to bear the brunt of torture meted out to her by the accused-appellant, the daughter of the informant had to take shelter in the house of the informant along with her 14 months old child about two months earlier. By specifically mentioning about the incident, the informant stated that at around 6-00 p.m. on 16/1/2016, the accused-appellant came to the house of the informant. Promising that he would not subject the daughter of the informant to any kind of torture, the accusedappellant stayed for that night in the house of the informant. But at around 12-30 a.m. on 17/1/2016, the accused-appellant strangled the daughter of the informant on bed and the informant witnessed the said incident. The informant further alleged that the other two accused persons named in the FIR were indirectly involved for the incident.