ANIL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CONVICT Anil (here -in -after referred to as 'the appellant') has brought this appeal to assail correctness of judgment of conviction dated August 29, 2009/order of sentence dated August 31, 2009 whereby learned Additional Sessions Judge (Adhoc) Fast Track Court, Rewari (here -in -after referred to as 'the trial court') has convicted and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for life with fine amounting to Rs. 3000/ - and in default of payment of fine to further simple imprisonment for a term of three months for an offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (here -in -after referred to as the Penal Code); rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years with fine amounting to Rs. 1000/ - and in default of payment of fine to further simple imprisonment for a term of one month for an offence punishable under Section 380 of the Penal Code; and rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year with fine amounting to Rs. 1000/ - and in default of payment of fine to further simple imprisonment for a term of one month for an offence punishable under Section 454 of the Penal Code and all the substantive sentences have been ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) PUT as concisely as one may, prosecution's chronicle indicates that Milind Rawat (here -in -after referred to as 'the complainant') and his wife Ranjana (here -in -after referred to as 'the deceased') were putting up in EWS House No. 647 (3rd floor), Housing Board Colony, Sector 06, Dharuhera. On April 23, 2008 complainant left his house at or around 08.00 a.m. for his office and returned home at or around 05.30 p.m. He called his wife but did not receive any response from her. Door of the house was lying open. On entering the house he spotted blood stains in a corner of the house wherefrom room and kitchen were accessible. On entering the room he found that the deceased was lying on the floor and her body was smeared with blood. Blood was oozing from her neck. There were injuries, with a sharp weapon, on her head, forehead, neck and stomach and her clothes were smeared with blood. Her neck was also strangulated. She did not respond to his call. On complainant's call his neighbour Ranjeet, accompanied by someone close to him, came to complainant's house and asked him to approach the police as it seemed to be a case of murder. Responding to complainant's phone call police reached the spot in a shortwhile. In police gypsy deceased was taken to Apex Trauma Centre, Dharuhera where doctor declared her dead. Complainant narrated the entire sequence of events in his statement, Exhibit PH, before Sub Inspector Lal Chand (PW17) (here -in -after referred to as 'the Investigating Officer') whereupon a formal First Information Report (FIR, for short), Exhibit PH/1, came to be recorded by SI Ram Phool (PW9). Investigating Officer prepared Inquest Report, Exhibit PL. Responding to a call from the Investigating Officer, Photographer Ram Parshad (PW12) and Senior Scientific Officer, Dr. Basant Pal (PW2) reached the spot. Ram Parshad (PW12) clicked photographs, Exhibits P1 to P14 (with negatives P15 to P28) and Dr. Basant Pal (PW2) inspected the scene of occurrence, located a nose pin and its lock lying separately, some hair, and blood splashes on wooden door and floor of the room, prepared a report, Exhibit PD, and got the hair recovered by the Investigating Officer. On April 24, 2008 Dr. Basant Pal (PW2) recovered from the scene of occurrence and handed over to the Investigating Officer a portion of blood stained mattress, Exhibit P42, blood stained slippers, Exhibit P41, blood stained hair, Exhibit P40 and blood stained earth. Dr. R.K. Singh (PW1) medico legally examined the deceased vide medico legal report (MLR, for short), Exhibit PA, at 06.15 p.m. on April 23, 2008. On police request, a Board of Doctors, including Dr. J.S. Mehra (PW10), conducted post mortem on the dead body of the deceased and recorded in the Post Mortem Report (PMR, for short), Exhibit PK, that body of the deceased had following injuries:

(3.) ON April 29, 2008 Investigating Officer, on identification of the complainant, apprehended the appellant when he was alighting from a bus at Bus Stand, Dharuhera. He (the appellant) produced before the Investigating Officer two prescription slips of Apex Trauma Centre, Dharuhera, Exhibits P29 and P30, and on being interrogated, appellant suffered disclosure statement, Exhibit PX. On April 30, 2008 he suffered another disclosure statement, Exhibit PR, and thereby disclosed that he had kept concealed one "Mangal Sutra" (Exhibit P32), one gold ring (Exhibit P31) and six five hundred -rupee currency notes (Exhibit P33 to P38) total amounting to Rs. 3000/ - wrapped in a polythene paper, one knife (Exhibit P1), one plier (Exhibit P2), two plastic ropes (Exhibit P3), two shirts (Exhibits P31 & 32), one "payjami" (trousers) (Exhibit P34), and a "Banian" (Exhibit P33) in front of his house, and not on a hillock in village Dungda, as disclosed earlier, led the police party to the disclosed place and got recovered the aforestated articles vide memorandum, Exhibit PS. One shirt, knife, plier, and pieces of plastic rope seemed to be blood -stained. "Mangal Sutra" and gold ring were identified by the complainant as belongings of the deceased and one shirt as his belonging. Blood -stained shirt, knife, plier, and pieces of plastic rope, as also strands of hair and other articles recovered from the scene of occurrence, a strand of hair recovered from hand of the deceased and strand of hair clipped from appellant's head, were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Madhuban, Karnal (for short, FSL) from where three reports, Exhibit PZ/3, Exhibit PX and Exhibit PY, were received. In report, Exhibit PZ/3, it was revealed that the strands of hair were found to be "human in origin" but no opinion as regards their similarity could be given, while report, Exhibit PX, stated that no Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was possible since no quantifiable DNA could be obtained and report, Exhibit PY, revealed that Lady's shirt, Salwar, Sameez, Dupatta, Brassier, underwear, mattress (razai) piece, blood, and knife had human blood grouping whereof had remained inconclusive while the other articles were said to be "material disintegrated".