BINOD SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole appellant, Binod Singh has been convicted under Sections 302 and 201 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code there in after referred to as the Code) and has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life for the first offence and R.I. for 2 years for the secolld one. However the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) The prosecution case is that the appellant was married to deceased Veena Devi daughter of one Jagdish Singh Rataur of village Baranti within Rajapakar Police Station in the district of Vaishali sometime in the year 1977. However soon thereafter the marital relationship between the couple become strained so much so that in the year 1978 the deceased filed a criminal case against the appellant and other relatives and started living with her parents. However on 21-10-1985 the appellant took the deceased to the marital home situated at village Paharpur within Baligaon Police Station in the same district. Next morning deceased was found dead. The village Chaukidar, Ram Sewak Sahani (P.W. 5) heard rumour to this effect and also came to know that the appellant and some other co-villagers including his father were intending to cremate the dead body of the deceased hurriedly. Therefore he rushed to Baligaon Police Station at about 1 p.m. on the same day and lodged a first information report which was recorded in absence of any police officer as S.D. entry No. 346 dated 22-10-1985 (Exhibit-2), Immediately literate constable who made the entry rushed to village Paharpur and saw that 25-30 persons were present there and performing the funeral of the deceased. On seeing the police party the persons present there fled away leaving pyre in burning condition. However, the fire was extinguished and some burnt pieces of flesh and bones were recovered from there.

(3.) Later on the Officer Incharge of Baligaon Police Station registered case against the appellant and ten others under Sections 302 and 201 of the Code. On completion of investigation the police submitted charge-sheet against all the accused persons named in the first information report. The appellant was specifically charged under Section 302 of the Code, while other accused persons alongwith him were charged under Section 201 read with Section 34 of the Code. The defence of the appellant is that his wife died due to diarrhoea. On trial the learned Sessions Judge, Vaishali at Hajipur found the appeilant guilty of committing murder of his own wife and also causing disappearance of the evidence (dead body of the deceased) in order to screen himself from punishment; and. accordingly convicted and sentenced him as indicated above. The learned Sessions Judge, however, did not find the remaining accused persons guilty of the charge under Section 201 read with Section 34 of the Code and acquitted them of the same.