TEKAN PANDIT Vs. STATE OF BIHAR (NOW JHARKHAND)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants, two in number, were arrayed as A-1 and A-2, and stood charged under Sections 302/34 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. The allegation against them is that they committed the murder of their daughter-in-law, Gita Devi, and threw the body into the well to screen the offence.

(2.) The trial judge, on the evidence adduced, both oral and documentary, finding the appellants guilty, sentenced each one of them to imprisonment for life and also imposed a sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment for the offence under Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code and 201 of the Indian Penal Code respectively with the direction that the sentence of imprisonment will run concurrently. The present appeal, by the appellants, challenges the said conviction and sentence.

(3.) PW-1, Ashia Devi is the mother of the deceased, Gita Devi, and PW-4, Rupan Pandit, is the father of the deceased. PW-2, Pasia Devi, is the aunt of the deceased. The 1st appellant is the father-in-law and 2nd appellant is the mother-in-law of the deceased. The deceased was given in marriage to the son of the appellants and she was living in her in-laws' house after the marriage. There used to be quarrels between the in-laws and the deceased, Gita Devi. It is the case of the prosecution that on 13.2.1987, the appellants went to the house of PW-4 and as PW-4 was not in his house, they informed PW-1, the mother of the deceased, to take back their daughter. Thereafter, the appellants left the house of PW-4. PW-4, on returning home, was informed of the said fact by his wife. PW-4 went to the village where his daughter was residing with her in-laws and was informed by his son-in-law that the deceased after quarreling with the appellants, over a Saree, left the house. On 14.2.1987, PW-4 gave a written report regarding the missing of his daughter to Deoghar Police Station, which stands marked as Ext. 9. PW-4 tried in vain to trace his daughter, Gita Devi. In the meantime, the body was found floating in the well. It was taken out on 21.2.1987. Thereafter, Fardbayan was registered as a crime and the formal FIR stands marked as Ext. 8. Investigation was taken up by PW-8, Police Officer, who conducted inquest and later sent the dead body for post mortem.