DINA NATH PANDIT Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence dated 5.1.1995 passed by Sessions Judge, Katihar in Sessions Trial No. 223 of 1993, by which the sole appellant has been convicted under Sections 302 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and a period of seven years under Sections 302 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code, respectively.

(2.) THE prosecution in narrow compass may be recapitulated as hereunder : On 1.4.1992 the informant was in Satkar Hotel gossiping with one Chamariyaji where his son informed him that his 5. mother is lying unconscious in pool of blood and the informant rushed to his house immediately where he found the doctor who informed him,that his wife is dead. The informant also noticed a cut mark on the neck of his wife and on quarry his daughter -in -law informed him that servant who was employed two days before the occurrence gave her child and asked to make her sleep and went away on the upstair. After 15 to 20 minutes the informant ';s son Manoj Kumar came 10. home and when he went to the upstair, he saw that his mother is lying in pool of blood. So, he rushed to call a doctor and thereafter, went to inform the informant. The informant and his son searched the servant, but he was traceless. It was detected that Almirah, kept in the northern room, was open but the articles were not removed from that Almirah. The informant also found a blood stained dagger kept on a gunny bag. It has been stated that the servant had disclosed his name as 15. Din Dayal Pandit and had also disclosed that he used to work in plastic factory at Birat Nagar. It was suspected that the servant killed the informant ';s wife and fled away. On the basis of the fardbeyan (Ext. 5) formal FIR (Ext. 7) under Section 302 of the IPC was lodged against Din Dayal Pandit and S.I. of Police prepared the inquest report (Ext. 6) and sent the dead body for post - mortem examination. The police started investigation and recovered one Eveready torch of three 20. cell which was kept near the head of the deceased and it had some blood mark on it. Besides that the investigating officer seized a blood stained pillow cover, a blood stained dagger of 6" size which he seized and prepared the seizure list (Ext. 2/1). The police went to Jogbani in search of Din Dayal Pandit from where, he was arrested and on his disclosure, house of one Manoj Sharma was searched and several stolen ornaments and cash (material Exts. I to IX) were recovered which 25 the police seized and prepared the seizure list (Ext. 2). The accused was brought to Katihar and after obtaining the post -mortem examination report (Ext. 4) and completing the investigation, charge -sheet was submitted against the appellant under Sections 302/380 and 411/34 of the IPC. The case was committed to the Court of Sessions after taking cognizance.

(3.) IN order to bring home the charges against the appellant, the prosecution examined as many as 11 witnesses in the case out of whom PW 10 Rana, Surendra Pratap Singh, PW 11 Shyam Narayan Singh are the police officers who took part in the investigation of the case and PW 7 Dr. Bipin 35. Kumar Singh conducted autopsy on the dead body of the deceased. PW 1 Manoj Kumar Agrawal, PW 3 Anil Kumar Agrawal are the sons of the informant. PW 4 Sudha Agrawal is daughter -in -law of the informant, PW 5 Shyamlal Agrawal and PW 6 Ashok Kumar Agrawal are the seizure list witnesses, PW 8 Sitaram Chamariya who is informant ';s friend and PW 2 Hansraj Sharaf are the witnesses who reached at the place of occurrence on getting information about the murder of 40. the deceased.