IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Recovery – Recovered articles must be subjected to identification proceedings for authentication.
(2) Appellate Jurisdiction – Absence of appeal by accused-respondent against his conviction, does not, by itself, denude Supreme Court of its appellate jurisdiction.

ORDER :

Mehta, J.

1. Heard.

2. Leave granted.

3. The State of Assam is in appeal before us by special leave for assailing the judgment and final order dated 22nd December, 2022 passed by the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court¹[Hereinafter, referred to as “High Court”.] in Criminal Appeal (J) No. 72 of 2018, whereby the High Court partly allowed the appeal filed by the accused-respondent.

4. By the impugned judgment, the High Court set aside the conviction and sentence of death imposed by the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Hojai²[Hereinafter, referred to as “trial Court”.], vide judgment dated 24th July, 2018 and order on sentence dated 1st August, 2018, upon the respondent, Moinul Haque³[Hereinafter, referred to as “accused-respondent”.], for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 376A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. While affirming the conviction of the accused-respondent under Section 201 of the IPC , the High Court reduced the sentence for the said offence from rigorous imprisonment for seven years, as awarded by the trial Court, to rigorous imprisonment for three years, along with a fine of Rs. 20,000/-.

BRIEF FACTS

5. Succinctly stated, the facts relevant and essential for disposal of this appeal are noted hereinbelow.

6. The dead body of Smt. Arnomai Bora⁴[Hereinafter, referred to as “deceased”], concealed in a bag, was found lying on the banks of the Kopili River on 31st May, 2017. The deceased was serving as the Headmistress of Changjurai Elachi Deuri L.P. School in the Jamunamukh area, located on the north bank of the said river. Information regarding the discovery of the dead body was lodged by the husband of the deceased, Shri Bimal Bora, at the Police Station Jamunamukh vide G.D. Entry no.493 dated 31st May, 2017. Based thereupon, an FIR, being Crime No. 52 of 2017, came to be registered for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC . During the course of investigation, the Investigating Officer proceeded to apprehend the accused-respondent and the co-accused, Salim Uddin @ Salim, who were chargesheeted for the offences punishable under , 201 and 376A read with Section 34 of the , upon conclusion of investigation.

7. Since the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 376A of the IPC were exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed and made over to the trial Court, where Sessions Case No.70(N) of 2017 came to be registered against the two accused named above. The trial Court framed charges against both the accused who pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. To establish its case, the prosecution examined nineteen witnesses (PW-1 to PW-19) and exhibited twenty-eight documents (Ex. 1 to Ex. 28), alongside various material articles.

8. Upon a comprehensive appreciation of the evidence on record, the trial Court convicted and sentenced both the accused as below:-

a. The accused-respondent Moinul Haque @ Monu was convicted and sentenced to death for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 376A of the IPC. He was also sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years, along with a fine of Rs. 20,000/-, under Section 201 of the IPC.

b. The co-accused, Salim Uddin @ Salim, was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, along with a fine of Rs. 20,000/-, for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC , and further to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of five years, along with a fine of Rs. 10,000/-, for the offence punishable under Section 201 of the .

9. Since the accused-respon