MITHUN PASWAN Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this appeal, appellant/accused Mithun Paswan is challenging the Judgment and Order dtd. 15/1/2014 and 18/1/2014 respectively passed by the learned Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge-II, Khagaria, in Sessions Trial No.394 of 2010, thereby convicting him of the offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 364 of the Indian Penal Code. For the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code, he is sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life along with imposition of fine of Rs.5000.00 and for the offence punishable under Sec. 364 of the Indian Penal Code, he is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 10 years apart from imposition of fine of Rs.5000.00. The learned trial court awarded default sentence of imprisonment for six months. Substantive sentences are directed to run concurrently. For the sake of convenience, the appellant shall be referred to in his original capacity as "an accused ".

(2.) Facts in brief leading to the prosecution of the accused can be summarized thus:

(3.) We heard the learned counsel appearing for the appellant/accused at sufficient length of time. He argued that the case is based on the circumstantial evidence and the prosecution has failed to prove the complete chain of circumstances leading to the sole hypothesis of guilt of the accused. It is argued that evidence of the prosecution is discrepant and insufficient to bring home the guilt to the accused. For this proposition, reliance is placed on Machander Versus The State of Hyderabad reported in AIR 1955 SC 792.