OM PARKASH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been preferred by appellant-Om Parkash, feeling dissatisfied against the judgment and order of conviction dated 17.04.2002/18.04.2002 whereby he has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of '2000/-and in default thereof, to undergo further simple imprisonment for 2 months, for the commission of murder of his wife. The case of the prosecution unfolded by Kamlesh, the second wife of Om Parkash-appellant, is that her husband has married twice. His first wife Smt. Santra gave birth to one daughter namely Kanta, who is married. About 14/15 years ago, she (Kamlesh) married Om Parkash and they have four children. Om Parkash always used to beat her as well as Smt. Santra after consuming liquor and used to command them to leave his house. On May 23, 2001 at about 7:00 P.M., Om Parkash asked Smt. Santra as usual to get out of the home but Smt. Santra refused to obey him. Then, Om Parkash splashed kerosene oil at Santra and set her on fire. Smt. Santra raised rescue call 'bachao-bachao' which attracted Sheela, her real sister and some other persons from the locality. Her sister as well as their neighbours tried to extinguish the fire by putting quilt on Smt. Santra but the fire could not be controlled and due to bums, she fell down in the court-yard. It has further been stated by Kamlesh that Om Parkash has set Smt. Santra ablaze with the intention of killing her. She was rushed to PGIMS, Rohtak. On the basis of the aforesaid statement of Smt. Kamlesh, the case was registered against Om Parkash - appellant, under Section 307 IPC. Subsequently, an application was moved by the Investigating Officer to the jurisdictional Illaqa Magistrate for getting the statement of Smt. Santra recorded with regard to the cause of burning and her statement was recorded by Sh. R.K. Sharma, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak. During the course of investigation, the Investigating Officer also took the photographs of the place of incident, prepared site plan, took into possession one bottle of kerosene oil, one pair of Hawai Chappals, partially burnt clothes and match box by converting the same into parcels. Unfortunately, Smt. Santra succumbed to her injuries on May 28, 2001. He also prepared the inquest report and got conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Smt. Santra. The doctor, who conducted the autopsy, opined that patient Smt. Santra had died due to ante-mortem burns and its complications, which were sufficient to cause death in natural course of events. Accordingly, offence was enhanced to one under Section 302 IPC. Om Parkash was arrested by the police on May 24, 2001. After completion of the investigation, challan under Section 302 of the IPC was presented in the court of ld. Jurisdictional Magistrate, who after completing formalities, committed the case to the court of Sessions vide order dated August 03, 2001.

(2.) There being prima facie evidence appearing in the report under Section 173(2) of Cr.P.C. and the documents annexed with it, appellant-accused was charged to face trial under Section 302 IPC, for commission of the murder of his wife Smt. Santra. He did not plead guilty to the charge and claimed trial.

(3.) In order to substantiate the charge framed against the appellant-accused, the prosecution examined as many as 18 witnesses. PW-1 ASI Surjeet Singh scribed formal FIR Ex. PA/1 on the basis of the statement of Kamlesh Ex. PA/2. PW-2 Constable Sumit Kumar prepared the site plan Ex.PB while visiting the spot. PW-3 Sub Inspector Ishwar Singh prepared the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. and presented the same in court. PW-4 Phool Singh UGC, PW-11 HC Rajbir Singh and PW-12 HC Badri Parshad submitted their duly sworn affidavits Ex. PC, Ex.PH and Ex. PJ respectively, deposing that they handled the case property of the instant case at different stages. PW-5 HC Dharambir Singh prepared the inquest report in respect of the dead body of Smt. Santra and got conducted an autopsy. PW-6 Sheela is the real sister of deceased Smt. Santra but she did not support the case/cause as to how the deceased had sustained burn injuries. Ultimately, she was declared hostile. PW-7 Dilbagh is the real brother of Om Parkash. He also did not support the case of the prosecution. He denied having made statement Ex. PE to the police. PW-8 Rajesh is the owner of the car, who brought Smt. Santra with burns to PGIMS, Rohtak. PW-9 Kamlesh is the complainant and second wife of Om Parkash-appellant, who also refused to support the case of the prosecution. PW-10 Dr. Ashok Rathi, medico legally examined Smt. Santra on May 23, 2001 at 10:05 p.m. and proved copy of MLR Ex. PF. He also sent ruqqa Ex.P-G to the Police Post PGIMS, Rohtak for making arrangement to record the statement of Smt. Santra, in which he has specifically mentioned that there was an alleged history of burns due to kerosene spray and setting on fire by her husband on May 23, 2001 at 9:15 p.m. PW-13 Dr. Raman Shukla conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Smt. Santra on May 29, 2001 and proved copy of post-mortem report Ex.PK/A and initialled the other inquest proceedings. PW-14 Sh. R.K. Sharma, the then Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak has proved and testified that the statement of Smt. Santra Ex. PK was recorded by him after Smt. Santra was opined to be fit to make statement by Dr. Dharmender Sharma. PW-15 Constable Surender has taken photographs of the place of occurrence and proved photographs Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-3 and negatives Ex.P-4 to Ex.P-6, PW-16 Dr. Dharmender Sharma has testified that he gave opinion Ex.PM/A to the effect that Smt. Santra was fit to make statement and her state of mind was correct and was well oriented as to time, place and person. After completion of her statement, he again opined that she remained fit and made endorsement Ex.PK/1. PW-17 Rajbir Singh witnessed the recovery memos Ex.PO, Ex.PQ and Ex.PR, vide which the investigating officer took into possession partially burnt clothes, Hawai Chap-pal, one bottle of kerosene and a match box. PW-18 ASI Ram Kishan conducted the investigation of the case and has proved various documents. The prosecution also tendered in to evidence F.S.L. Report Ex.PS and closed its evidence.