NARESH KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall dispose of Criminal Appeal No.D-832- DB of 2008 filed by Naresh Kumar, Criminal Appeal No.D-388-DB of 2009, filed by State of Haryana and Criminal Revision No.473 of 2009, filed by petitioner Daya Kishan Sharma as these arise out of the judgment and order of sentence dated 31.10.2008, passed by the Addl. Sessions Judge, Jhajjar. vide which appellant Naresh Kumar has been convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.50,000/- and in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years under Section 302 IPC whereas other accused namely Smt.Kamlesh, Mahabir Singh and Sonu @ Satpal have been acquitted. FIR in the present case has been registered on the basis of application given by Daya Kishan Sharma, complainant at 9:15 p.m. on 19.07.2005 to ASI Ombir of Police Post Sasrauli. After making endorsement, application was sent for registration of the FIR. As per this application, Asha Lata, daughter of complainant, was married with accused Naresh Kumar on 11.02.2005. Both of them resided in village Sehalanga, District Jhajjar. Sufficient dowry was given in the marriage but even then they demanded dowry articles from his daughter again and again. Kamlesh, mother-in-law, Mahabir Singh, father-in-law, Naresh Kumar, husband and Sonu brother in law (Devar) of deceased Asha Lata, harassed her for bringing more dowry articles. On 19.07.2005 at about 1:30 p.m., Mahabir, father-inlaw of Asha Lata, gave information to the complainant on telephone that he may reach to his house. The complainant alongwith his brother Raj Kumar went to village Sehalanga where he found his daughter dead. The complainant was confident that his daughter has been murdered by these greedy persons of dowry articles by strangulating her. After leaving his real brother Raj Kumar with the dead body, when the complainant was going to report the matter to Police Post Sasrauli, ASI Ombir, who alongwith police party, was on patrolling at Sasrauli chowk, met him to whom the application was given. Investigating Officer alongwith police party and complainant Daya Kishan went to the place of occurrence and found the dead body of Asha lying on the bed. He also noticed that a wooden stool and a chunni was also lying nearby the dead body. Photographs were taken. Inquest report was prepared and dead body of Asha was handed over to Constable Suresh Kumar for conducting the post mortem examination. Investigating Officer inspected the spot and prepared rough site plan Ex.PH. The ornaments of the deceased were also taken into police possession vide recovery memo Ex.PG after preparing sealed parcel. Statements of witnesses were recorded. Accused Naresh was produced by Jagat Singh, Sarpanch on 25.07.2005 before ASI Bimla Devi and was arrested. On interrogation, he suffered disclosure statement and in pursuance of that disclosure statement, he got recovered the dowry articles and the same were taken into police possession. On 02.08.2005, Smt.Kamlesh was produced by PW Ram Avtar and was arrested.

(2.) On 17.08.2005, accused Mahabir and Sonu were also arrested. After necessary investigation, challan against the accused was presented. On presentation of challan, copies of challan and other documents were supplied to the accused under Section 207 Cr.P.C. Finding a prima facie case against the accused, they were charged for the offences under Sections 498-A, 302, 304-B and 406 read with Section 34 IPC to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

(3.) In support of its case, the prosecution examined PW1 Daya Kishan, complainant, who mainly deposed as per prosecution version. PW2 Ramesh Chander, neighbour of the complainant, identified the dead body of Asha. PW3 ASI Ashok Kumar deposed regarding scribing of FIR on the basis of ruqa Ex.PB. PW4 Constable Jai Chand prepared the scaled site plan Ex.PE. PW5 Dr.Ved Pal, conducted the postmortem examination on the dead body of Asha alongwith Dr.Kumud Sharma and found three contusions of size 6 x 1 cm, parallel to each other on right frontal part of neck, starting from middle to the right mastoid process on cut section of the contusion echymoses and hemorrhagic area present in subsucaneous tissue and neck muscle. Tracheal and laryngal cartilage fracture underlying tissue shows hemorrhage area. As per the opinion of the doctors, the cause of death in the case was due to asphyxia as a result of manual throttling which is ante-mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature. PW6 Sushil Kumar, Photographer, deposed regarding the negatives Ex.P1 to Ex.P6 and photographs Ex.P7 to Ex.P12. PW7 Raj Kumar, brother of complainant Daya Kishan, deposed that Asha was being harassed by her husband Naresh, her mother in law Smt.Kamlesh, father-in-law Mahabir and brother-in-law Sonu @ Satpal. He also deposed that they had taken Panchayat on 2-3 occasions in the house of accused. PW8 Head Constable Shri Niwas is the witness of recovery memo Ex.PG. PW9 Smt.Bimla Devi ASI mainly deposed regarding some investigation conducted by her. PW10 ASI Ombir Singh, Investigating Officer, deposed regarding the investigation of the case. PW11 Sub Inspector Rajpal mainly deposed regarding preparing the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C.