STATE OF J&K Vs. BABU RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard. The present criminal acquittal appeal by the appellant-State, upon its bare reading, has caught this Court laboring with a thought process that is the filing of an acquittal appeal from the State/Government"s end just an administrative minded routine exercise to be done just for file making at the cost of consuming the valuable time and energy of the appellate court(s), or is it supposed and, in fact, meant to be a mindful and meaningful exercise on the part of the prosecution establishment of the State/Government to pose a prima facie, legal and factual, challenge so as to engage an appellate court to make and undertake a deserving examination of the judgment of acquittal and more especially in case(s) of serious nature/gravity, and which in the present case is under sec. 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code equivalent sec. reference being to sec. 302 Indian Penal Code. With this reference frame weighing upon, this Court proceeds to deal with the present criminal acquittal appeal.

(2.) A first information report (FIR) No. 54 of 2010 was registered on 7/5/2010 for commission of offence under sec. 302 Ranbir Penal Code (in short RPC), as it was then in force, with the Police Station Billawar falling in district Kathua of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir. Said FIR was with respect to death of one Reeta Devi who was wife of Ashok Kumar and resident of Bartra Bial, Tehsil Billawar. FIR was registered on the basis of a General Diary Report No. 10 dtd. 6/5/2010 of the Police Post Ramkot. In the FIR, except for the bare mention of the fact that said Reeta Devi has been murdered by some persons and whose dead body is lying in her house, there is no other factual reference, particularly about the suspected perpetrator/s of the crime, attending the incident. The investigation of the case was entrusted to a Probationer Sub Inspector (PSI) No. 055663 Mr. Sanjeet Sharma of the Police Post, Ramkote falling under the jurisdiction of the Police Station Billawar.

(3.) Acting upon said FIR, the said Investigation Officer ("IO" in short) came to get two persons namely Sh. Angrej Chand (PW-1) and Raj Kumar (PW-2) presented before the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, (JMIC), Billawar on 24/05/2010 for volunteering their respective statements under sec. 164-A J&K Code of Criminal Procedure (1939 AD). In those statements, said two persons, who were going to be the prosecution witnesses, gave a version that on 06/05/2010 at about 09:00 a.m. both of them being in each other"s company had gone for work when upon hearing noise they entered the house of Babu Ram to see that accused was sitting on deceased Reeta Devi on the bed while the accused Geeta Devi was holding the deceased Reeta Devi by her arm and that accused Babu Ram was inflicting blow of kulhari dasta on the chest of the deceased Reeta Devi and the accused Sapna was giving blow on head of deceased by Balen (Rolling Pin). By this beating, the deceased Reeta Devi had died on spot and the accused persons ran away from the scene of occurrence. It is important to cite here that the deceased Reeta Devi was aged 23 years and married to one Ashok Kumar. Ashok Kumar is son of Babu Ram and Geeta Devi and brother of Sapna, the three persons so named to be doers of the crime.