SAJAN Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON the night of 16 4-1970 when P. W. 2 Bhagwati Kishore was sitting with his wife in privacy at about 10 45 p. m. a room of his house abutting on the public street in the city of Kota, there appeared a shadow of a man on the curtain of the window giving an impression to the couple that some-body was improperly invading their privacy. Consequently Bhagwati Kishore challenged the person to which an offensive reply came from the intruder. This intruder is alleged to be the accused. The accused challenged P. W. 2 Bhagwati Kishore to come out. Meanwhile Bhagwati Kishore's father Ramkrishna deceased happened to come there and on a verbal altera-tion between him and the accused, the accused struck a blow with a knief at the chest of Ramkrishna who fell down badly injured and cried out that the accused Sajan had struck him. Bhagwati Kishore ran after the accused but the latter threatened to kill him also and so Bhagwati Kishore gave up the chase and the accused ran away. Bhagwati Kishore went to the Police Out-Post, Kethooni, and lodged a written report Ex. P. 2 of the occurrence. Thereafter he came to the spot where a few persons of the locality had collected, and had taken Ramkrishna to the Hospital, from where the police constable who had also accompanied them to the hospital phoned at the Police Station, Makbara that Ramkrishna had died in the night. P. W. 17 Ramsaran, Station House Officer, Police Station, Makbara registered a case under sec. 302 I. P. C. against the accused and started for the place of occurrence for investigation and also sent Police Constables Udaybhan Singh and Bhomsingh to search out the accused and arrest him. P. W. 4 Udaybhan Singh arrested the accused the same night at about 11-45 p. m. , outside Kishorepura Gate and produced him before Station House Officer. The arrest memo is Ex. P. 5. The Station House Officer conducted a personal search of the accused and recovered a blood stained knife from the pocket of the pent worn by the accused at that time. The recovery memo of the knife is Ex. P. 8. Since blood stained were found also on the pent and the underwear worn by the accused they were taken into custody by the police. The recovery memo of the clothes of the accused is Ex. P. 9. The knife as well as the clothes were sealed by the Station House Officer and were sent to the Chemical Examiner on April 25, 1970 with Head Constable P. W. 14 Uma Shanker. The report of the Chemical Examiner is Ex. P. 18 and the report of the Serologist is Ex. P. 19. The Knife as well as the clothes were found stained with human blood. The post-mortem examination of the dead body of Ramkrishna conducted by Dr. R. K. Gupta (P. W. 15) revealed the following injuries: - (1) Stab wound l-1/4"x5/8" on the front of right side of chest on its lower part at the sterno chondrial junction of right 7th rib, margins cleanly out and lying horizontally. ON further dissection the costo chondrial junction of right 7th rib was cut. It was going onward and little laterally, injuring the pleura, pericardium and perforating the right atrium 3/8* in length Naemopericar-dium was present. Little right sided haemo thoriax was seen. (2) Abrasion l-1/4"x3/4" on the front of left knee. The post-mortem report proved by the doctor is Ex. P. 3.

(2.) THE case was tried by the Sessions Judge, Kota who by his judgment dated 29-4-1971 convicted the accused under sec. 302 I. P. C. and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. Aggrieved by his conviction and sentence the accused has submitted this appeal.

(3.) WE may also mention, here, in passing that the evidence of Bhagwati Kishore and Smt. Indra is that at the time the blow was given to the deceased, he uttered the following words, "bhanwar, Sajan has struck me with a knife. " It may be mentioned, here, that Bhanwar is another name of PW/2 Bhagwati Kishore. This evidence is also relevant and corroborative the testimony of the eye witnesses. There is thus, over-whelming evidence against the accused, and the offence has been brought home to him beyond all manner of reasonable doubt.