RAJENDRA LAL Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction dated 15.2.2005 and order of sentence dated 17.2.2005 passed by the then Additional Sessions Judge, F.T.C.-III, Daltonganj in S.T. No. 193 of 2003 whereby and whereunder, the court having found the appellant guilty for committing murder of his wife-Poonam Devi convicted him for the offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and further to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- and in default of payment of fine to undergo simple imprisonment for one month.

(2.) The case of the prosecution, as has been made out in the fardbeyan (Ext. 5) by the informant-Chanchala Kumari (P.W.1), is that on 10.10.2002 while she was in her house, Aman Kumar-P.W.2, son of the deceased, came there and informed her that his father has killed his mother. Upon it, she along with others including her brother-Vijay Kumar-P.W.5 went there and found Poonam Devi dead. They also noticed that the neck was swollen and was having ligature mark. There she was also informed by Abhinav Kumar-P.W.3, another son of the deceased, that his father took his mother to a room where she was assaulted severely and as such she raised distress alarm. After some time when his father came out, he told them (P.Ws. 2 and 3) that he has killed their mother. He also asked them to go and to inform to their maternal grand parents and maternal aunt. While the informant was there in the house of the deceased, S.I. of Daltonganj Town P.S., Jaglal Ram, came there at about 2:30pm and recorded the fardbeyan (Ext.5) of the informant-Chanchala Kumari (PW.1) who stated about the occurrence, as has been stated above, and also stated that the appellant has killed his wife, as he wanted to marry another girl. On the basis of which a formal FIR (Ext.1) was drawn against the appellant. He himself took up the investigation during which he held inquest on the dead-body of the deceased and prepared an inquest report (Ext.7) and sent the dead-body for postmortem examination which was conducted by Dr. Mohan Prasad-P.W.10 who upon holding autopsy on the dead-body of the deceased found the following injuries :-

(3.) The doctor issued the postmortem examination report (Ext. 4) with an opinion that the death was caused due to mechanical asphyxia due to strangulation with a rope. Meanwhile, the Investigating Officer also seized a rope and the pieces of saris under Seizure List (Ext.6) which were produced by the appellant. He also recorded the statements of the witnesses.