VIJAY SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant Vijaysingh has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Udaipur on the charge of committing the murder of his wife Smt. Prem Kanwar. THE mother of the appellant Smt. Bhanwar Bai was also tried along with him for an offence under sec. 302 read with sec. 109 I. P. C. , but she was acquitted and her acquittal has become final as the State has not filed appeal against it.

(2.) THE prosecution case lies within a very narrow compass. It is alleged that the relations between the appellant and the deceased Prem Kanwar were not good and he wanted to marry again and in order to get rid of her, on the night intervening 23rd and 24th July, 1971, he committed her murder by strangulation. THE case for the murder of Smt. Prem Kanwar was registered on a report made by PW 2 Mst. Uchab Kunwar sister of the deceased Smt. Prem Kanwar's father.

(3.) AS to the other circumstances mentioned by the learned Judge, it is sufficient to point out that they all pertain to the acts of the father of the appellant and they are perfectly explicable on the hypothesis of the innocence of the accused-appellant. The person through whom the message of illness of the appellant is alleged to have been sent by his father Sardarsingh has not been produced and even if such a message was sent, the appellant cannot be connected with it and no such inference can be drawn that the message was sent at the behest of the appellant in order to conceal the crime. We do not think it necessary to dwell at length on the circumstances mentioned by the learned trial court under the heading 'other circumstantial evidence', as it is clear to us that they do not connect the appellant with the crime and are explicable on hypothesis other than the guilt of the accused.