LALMANI DEVI Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the three appellants on being convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code for committing murder of Sita Devi were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that on 28.12.2002 at about 11.30 a.m. when the informant Raghvendra Prasad Singh (P.W.8) came to in-laws' place of his sister, Sita Devi @ Sumitra Devi (deceased), he came to know that his sister's husband Rajiv Nayan Singh and also father-in-law as well as mother-in-law, namely, Ram Lakhan Singh and Lalmani Devi have burnt his sister to death. They took a false plea that Sita Devi (deceased) accidentally caught fire, as a result of which, she as well as her daughter aged about 15 months died.

(3.) Further case is that at that point of time, police also reached over there who made inspection of the house and then it could be known that Sita Devi, in fact, has been burnt to death in a bathroom from where burnt plastic pipe as well as some pieces of paper, one steel tumbler containing a little bit of K. Oil were found which were seized. They all felt smell of K.Oil coming out of the bathroom from where body had been removed and had been kept outside of the bathroom.