STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. SUNEEL KUMAR @ BOBBY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this appeal, appellant/State has challenged the judgment passed by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge(I), Kangra at Dharamshala, District Kangra, in Sessions Trial No. 24/2011, dated 29.06.2013, vide which, learned Trial Court acquitted the present respondent (hereinafter referred to as 'accused') for commission of offences punishable under Section 302 and 201 of Indian Penal Code (in short 'IPC').

(2.) The case of the prosecution in brief was that Amar Singh was working as an assistant with painter Roshan Lal and they were executing painting work in the house of one Kapoor Chand of village Tiara in the month of May, 2001. Further as per the prosecution, both of them used to return to their houses together in the evening after the work. On 23.05.2011, Amar Singh (hereinafter referred to as 'deceased') did not return to his house and thereafter his wife Nirmla Devi (complainant) sent her son Ashwani Kumar to inquire about the welfare of her husband Amar Singh from Roshan Lal. Ashwani Kumar telephonically inquired the whereabouts of his father from Roshan Lal who told that both of them had returned back around 5:00/5:15 p.m. from the work but Amar Singh expressed his desire to go via Jungle and therefore they both took their own ways. Complainant Nirmla Devi suspected that her husband might not have slipped in the way and got himself injured, so she accompanied her son and started searching for her husband but when Amar Singh was not traced, she informed her brother-in-law, Kishori Lal, who thereafter alongwith other villagers and family members started searching for Amar Singh, but without any success.

(3.) After the completion of investigation, challan was filed in the Court and as a prima-facie case was found against the accused, he was charged for commission of offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of IPC, to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.