DEVILAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the we hour of 24. 2. 1997 at about quarter to 12 an unfortunate incident took place, resulting in the commission of an offence of patricide. The killer is the appellant and the victim is the deceased father Hardev. The eye witness of the incident is the unfortunate mother PW-2 Dhapu Bai. The heinous crime was committed on a trivial issue. The headstrong son gave merciless beating to his father. He was tried for the charge of murder. The learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Chittorgarh by judgment dated 30. 6. 1998 convicted him of offence under Section 302 I. P. C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-; in default of payment to further undergo six months rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated the prosecution case is that on 24. 2. 1997 PW- 7 Kastur Chand lodged an oral First Information Report Exhibit P- 11 at Police Station Parsoli stating inter alia that at about quarter to 12 while returning from village Umarthana reached near the temple of Piplad Mataji. He was attracted by the out cry of Hardev, priest of the temple of Mataji. He found that appellant Devilal was giving lathi blows on the head of his father Hardev, as a result thereof, he fell down and was fluttering. He also stated that PW-2 Dhapu Bai, wife of Hardev was also present on the spot. There was profuse bleeding from the head of Hardev. He parked the motorcycle and tried to apprehend Devilal. He ran away in the forest throwing the broken lathi. Hardev was beaten to death on the spot. Mst. Dhapu stayed back and he went to the village. He met there with PW-1 Ashok Kumar Upadhayay, PW-10 Prakash and PW-11 Satyaprakash etc. He gave them the information of the incident. On this information, police registered a case for offence under Section 302 I. P. C. and proceeded with investigation. Inquest report was prepared and dead body was sent for autopsy. The accused appellant was apprehended. After usual investigation police laid chargesheet against the accused appellant for offence under Section 302 I. P. C.

(3.) PW-7 Kastur Chand has stated that at about 11. 30 or 11. 45 AM while he was passing through the Piplad Temple, he heard the out cry of Mst. Dhapu Bai. On reaching the spot, he found that appellant giving repeated 5 to 7 lathi blows on the head of deceased Hardev. He parked the motorcycle and tried to apprehend Devilal. He ran away towards forest throwing the broken lathi. He also stated that lathi was broken because of severe beating given by the appellant. He also stated that Hardev died on the spot. He went to the Police Station for lodging First Information Report. He also stated that he informed the persons of village sitting on the "well". Nothing has been elicited to discredit the testimony of this witness.