BHISHAM BAHADUR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is instituted against the judgment dated 12.7.2010 rendered by the Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Kullu in Sessions Trial No. 3 of 2010 whereby the appellant -accused (hereinafter referred to as the "accused" for convenience sake), who was charged with and tried for offence punishable under sections 302 of the Indian Penal Code, has been convicted and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 20,000/ - and in default of payment of fine, he was further directed to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year for the commission of offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that PW -1 Sita Thakur was residing in the house of her parents at Manikaran. Geeta Had come to the house of her parents one day prior to Rakshabandhan in the year 2009. Accused came to Manikaran on 12.8.2009 and stayed with his wife in the house of her parents. Mahinder Kaur had gone to Punjab about 3 -4 days prior to the incident. Sita, her father PW -3 Suresh Kumar, deceased Gita and accused were present at the house on the date of the incident. Accused asked his wife to accompany him on 13.8.2009 to Anni. She declined and asked the accused to wait for her mother. Accused got infuriated and started abusing his wife. Sita went to Ram Mandir at about 2 -2:30 p.m. for answering the call of nature. When she came back after 3 -4 minutes, she saw accused running towards Ram Mandir. Thereafter, accused ran towards Gurdwara. Sita came to her house and found that the door was closed. However, it was not bolted. She went inside and found that Gita was dead and was lying in a pool of blood. One darat Ext. P -1 was lying on the spot. It was stained with blood. The spectacles of the deceased Ext. P -2 were also lying on the spot. There was an injury on the neck of the accused. PW -1 Sita went to the house of her sister, PW -5 Deepa. She narrated the incident to her. PW -5 Deepa came on the spot. Sita went to call her father from Brahm Ganga. The matter was reported to the Police. Statement of PW -1 Sita was recorded Ext. PW -1/A by PW -11 Dulo Ram. It was sent to Police Station for registration of the FIR on the basis of which FIR Ext. PW -10/A was registered. The police invested the case and after investigation of the case, Challan was put up in the Court after completing all the codal formalities.

(3.) MR . Naveen K. Bhardwaj has vehemently argued that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case against the accused.