JHUNKA SAO Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole appellant in this case stands convicted for the offence under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life vide judgment and order dated 24-5-1996 and 25-5-1996 respectively, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Gumla, in Sessions Trial No. 40 of 1995.

(2.) The aforesaid conviction arose out of the following facts : The prosecution story, as per the Fard-beyan (Ext. 3) of Kalawati Devi (P.W. 1) is as follows : The informant Kalawati Devi gave her Fard-beyan on 15-5-1993 before the Officer-in-Charge of Sisai Police Station, on the road in front of the house of Akhil Mohan Sao, stating therein, inter alia, that on that day at about 2.00 p.m. in the afternoon she along with Urmila Devi (deceased), wife of late Sadanand Thakur, and her daughter Sarita Kumari (P.W. 7), aged about 7 years, had gone to bring water from the well of Raghu Sao, which is situated at the south of the village. After taking water, all the three of them were returning to their house. Sarita Kumari was in the front, she was in middle and behind the informant Urmila Devi (deceased) was going. It is stated that as they reached near the paddy field of Upendra Sao, she saw that Jhunka Sao son of Chita Sao of village Bargaon came from the front and suddenly started giving Chhura blow to Urmila Devi. Urmila Devi cried and fell down on the ground. When she fell down, Jhunka Sao again gave three or four Chhura blow on her person. Seeking this, she and Sarita Kumari (P.W. 7) raised Hulla and ran towards their house. Seeing this, Jhunka Sao also ran towards west of the road. Having seen accused running away, the informant and Sarita Kumari (P.W. 7) came near the injured Urmila Kumari and found that she had got injures on her chest, stomach and face as also head and she is dead. The cause of the occurrence is that Urmila Devi had lodged a case against Akhil Mohan Sao and he is in jail and Jhunka Sao is the nephew of Akhil Mohan Sao and due to the said enmity he murdered her. On the basis of the aforesaid Fard-beyan a formal First Information Report (Ext. 4) was lodged and police started investigation.

(3.) It appears that during the course of investigation, inquest report (Ext. 5) was also prepared and the post-mortem examination on the dead body of Urmila Devi (deceased) was also conducted by Dr. Mani Bhushan Prasad (P.W. 6), who proved the post-mortem report (Ext.1) and it also transpired that during the course of investigation statement of P.W. 7 was recorded under S. 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which has been proved by Achyutanand Upadhyaya (P.W. 9), Judicial Magistrate, who recorded the same.