SUKHDEV SHARMA Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Tragic death of deceased Rajni Devi is horrendous. She has been treated in a manner unbecoming of a human being. Nine years back she was married to one Ashwani Sharma who unfortunately lost his life due to electrocution. She was putting up with her in-laws who allegedly wanted to take over possession of the property of the deceased and the amount of Rs.2/ lacs as was received by the deceased as compensation. Accused with the object of getting rid of the deceased are alleged to have hatched a conspiracy and in pursuance thereof, on the death of the husband of the deceased, in-laws of the deceased perceived that the deceased is under the influence of soul of her husband, so they called excised i.e. Pawan Kumar S/O Om Prakash( caste Brahmin), in their house on 10.2.2011 along with drum beater. They started beating the deceased with kicks, sticks and chonda. On 17.2.2011, mother of the deceased on reaching to the house of the deceased found that the accused were beating the deceased with chonda and Jogi Danda, her request to stop them from doing such activities did not yield any results, so she left the place of occurrence and went to her home but on next day she heard that the deceased had received injuries on her spinal card and neck, so was taken to hospital where she succumbed to injuries.

(2.) Case registered as Crime No.52/2011 Police Station, Domana, on completion of investigation culminated in presenting the charge sheet to the effect that the accused No.1 to 3 during investigation are established to have committed offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC where as accused No.4 to 7 are established to have committed offence punishable under Section 498-A IPC.

(3.) Learned trial court (Sessions Judge, Jammu) after hearing PP and the counsel for the accused, as required in terms of Section 267, 268 and 269 Cr. P. C, has come to the conclusion that grounds exist for presuming commission of offence by all the accused punishable under Section 302/34 and 498-A IPC and accordingly charge has been framed against all the accused who pleaded not guilty. Since the accused No. 4 to 7 (petitioners herein) were at large on bail because as per conclusion of the investigation, they were only found to have committed offence punishable under Section 498-A IPC. Trial court while framing charge against all the accused for commission of offence punishable under Section 302/34 and 498-A IPC, committed the said four accused to judicial custody.