KANA Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant Kana was charged with having committed the murder of his wife Vardi on the early morning of May 4, 1971 in the village Majra, District Udaipur. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Udaipur by his judgment dated April 26, 1972 convicted the appellant under section 302, Indian Penal Code, arid sentenced him to imprisonment for life. Aggrieved by this decision the appellant has preferred this appeal.

(2.) The facts of the case lie in a narrow compass : The appellant was living with his wife Vardi in village Majra. He had three children, one was a baby. A few days prior to May 4,1972 Vardi went with Chhaga (P. W. 6) for a pilgrimage for about a week. After she returned back to the village she began to live with Chhaga. On the complaint of the appellant the villagers questioned Chhaga as to why he wa9 keeping the wife of the appellant. On persuasion by the villagers Vardi came back to live with the appellant. Chhaga inspite of the advice given by the villagers continued his visits to the house of the appellant. It is said that during the period Vardi was living with the appellant, after she came from the house of Chhaga the appellant ill-treated her.

(3.) The prosecution case was that on the morning of May 4, 1971 the appellant with his boy in arms went to the Police Station, Delwara at about 4.30 A. M. and reported to Poorna Shanker (P. W. 13), Sub Inspector of Police that his wife was lying dead with injuries on her and confessed before him that he was the man who committed the murder. Thereupon Poorna Shanker recorded the statement of the appellant as per Ex. P. 15. We may point out that the contents of Ex. P. 15 relating to the confession of the appellant relating to murder was inadmissible and the learned Additional Sessions Judge was wholly wrong in marking the entire statement. The appellant was arrested. Before the Sub-Inspector of Police the appellant amongst other things made a statement that he had kept the axe in the fodder of his but and that he would show the same if he was taken there Poorna Shanker sent Bhom Singh (P. W. 1), a police constable attached to the Police Station, to go to the village of the appellant and to keep a watch over the dead body. Bhom Singh went to the village at about 5 A. M. and found the dead body of Vardi and kept a watch over the dead body till the arrival of the Sub-Inspector of Police. Poorna Shanker arrived on the spot at about 8 A. M. and recovered the axe, which contained bloodstains, from the fodder as pointed out by the appellant. The prosecution case was that the appellant had a serious grouse against Vardi as she was in illicit intimacy with Chhaga, (P. W. 6) and due to that grouse while she was asleep, he committed her murder, and thereafter gave information to the Sub-Inspector of Police.