HIRASAO Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are two appellants in this appeal who have been held to be guilty of the offence under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) Appellant No. 2 Mandri Devi is the mother of appellant No. 1 Hira Sao and as per the findings of the court below they are accused of having murdered Mundri Devi, the wife of appellant No. 1 by strangulation in furtherance of common object and purpose. The formal F.I.R. was drawn on the basis of the fardbeyan of Jago Sao (PW 2), the father of the deceased which was recorded by the officer-in-charge of the Barkagaon Police Station on 8 9 1988 at 12 00 noon in the house of the accused persons where the offence is said to have been taken place, in this case altogether six witnesses have been examined PW 1 Debal Sao and PW 5 Sukra Sao are the castemen and co-villagers of the appellants. They have been declared to be hostile by the prosecution. PW 5 is also the relative to the informant being his cousin brother, PW 2 Jago Sao is the informant and PW 3 Tilak Sao respectively, are, the father and brother of the deceased, PW 4 Dr. B. P. Mandal is the Medical Officer who had conducted the post-mortem and has approved his report (Ext. 3) PW 6 Arjun Singh is the Investigating Officer who was also the officer-in-charge of the concerned Police Station at the material time and has proved the seizure list (Ext 1), inquest report (Ext. 2) and the sketch map of the place of occurrence (Ext. 5) being the author of the same.

(3.) I may first summarise certain essential facts as emerged from the evidence on record and are beyond any controversy The deceased Mundri Devi who was aged about 18 years at the time of occurrence ; she was married to appellant No. 1 only about 16 months back She had died in the night of 7th and 8th of September, 1988 under mysterious circumstances. In that fateful night at least these two appellants were in the house where she had died. In the following morning, i. e. on 8th September, 1988 at 7.00 a. m. the Investigating Officer came to the house of the appellants. The body of the deceased was found lying on a cot At about 12.00 noon the father of the deceased arrived there. Thereupon his fardbeyan was recorded and a formal FIR was drawn which have been exhibited as Ext. No. 4 and Ext. No. 7, respectively.