MANGI LAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal by the accused is directed against the judgment dated December 2, 1982 of the District and Sessions Judge, Bikaner, convicting and sentencing the accused appellants for the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34, IPC to imprisonment for life.

(2.) THE appellants were tried for causing the death of Mst. Champa wife of Fakir Chand by drowning her into the water reservoir (known as KUNDI) on September 5, 1980, in the morning at about 8.00 a.m. in the house of accused Mangi Lal situate in Mohallah Satyanarainji -ka Chowk, Bikaner. Appellant Fakir Chand is the husband of the deceased while appellant Mangi Lal is her father in -law. Mst. Champa was living with her husband. They were married about 15 years back and had two sons. Raju, the elder son, was living at the maternal grand -father's house, while the younger Rakesh, aged eight years, was living with the parents. The maternal grand father's house is hardly at a distance of two furlongs. The prosecution case was that the accused were harassing Mst. Champa and wanted her to bring ornaments from her father. Only 10 -15 days prior to the occurrence, Champa had complained to her father that her Borla and Necklace had been removed by her father in -law, but she being asked to bring the same or cash in its place from her father. Construction work was going on at the house of Mangi Lal. They wanted money for that purpose. The prosecution case was that the accused had told Mst. Champa that they would kill her if she did not being money from her father. As she was unable to do this, both the accused appellants, in the morning on the date of the occurrence, i.e. September 5, 1980, drowned her into the water reservoir (KUND1) of the house and killed her.

(3.) IN support of its case, the prosecution examined as many as fifteen witnesses. Mainly, the prosecution case is based on the evidence of Rakesh a minor son of the deceased, the extra -judicial confessions said to have been made by the accused before Dhoora Ram in the presence of Ashok Kumar and Megh Raj and the circumstantial evidence that the deceased died in the house of the accused, where the accused alone had the opportunity to kill her.