Point of Law: Merely because motive is established, solely on that basis accused cannot be convicted under Section 302 of IPC.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J

This criminal appeal filed by the accused-appellants under Section 374(2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 02.08.2013, passed by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge (FTC), Raigarh, District Raigarh (C.G.) in S.T. No.153/2012 (State of CG vs. Ram Singh Rathiya & another), whereby both the appellants-accused have been convicted for offence: under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous life imprisonment with fine of Rs.10,000/- and, in default of fine, additional rigorous imprisonment for 01 year and also under Section 201 of IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 05 years with fine of Rs.5,000/- and, in default of fine, additional rigorous imprisonment for 06 months.

2. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that between 08:00 PM of 10.07.2012 till 10:00 AM of 11.07.2012, at Village Nawapara (Tenda) within the ambit of Police Station Gharghoda, District Raigarh (CG), the accused-appellants in further of their common object and intention assaulted deceased- Ramdev Rathiya and his wife- Kamla Rathiya by means of ‘lathi’ and caused their death and, further in order to escape from said offence of committing murder of deceased- Ramdev Rathiya and Kamla Rathiya, they covered the dead-bodies of deceased by means of cloth, put it on bed and set ablaze, due to which the dead-bodies got burned and, thereby, committed the offence under Sections 302, 201 & 34 of IPC.

3. The further case of the prosecution, in nutshell, is that: the appellant No.01- Ram Singh Rathiya and deceased-Ramdev Rathiya both were brothers and between them a dispute/enmity was prevailing with regards to payment of compensation money against land acquisition; on the fateful intervening night, between 08:00 PM of 10.07.2012 till 10:00 AM of 11.07.2012, the accused-appellants assaulted deceased- Ramdev Rathiya and Kamla Rathiya by means of ‘lathi’ and caused their death and, further in order to escape from said offence of committing murder of deceased, cover the dead-bodies of deceased by means of cloth, put it on bed and set them ablaze, due to which the dead-bodies got burned; thereafter, on 11.07.2012, appellant No.01- Ram Singh Rathiya informed to police that his brother-Ramdev Rathiya and his wife- Kamla Rathiya both are dead and their deadbodies are burned in the house, pursuant to which police registered marg intimations (Ex.P/20 & P/24) and on the basis of marg. intimations, FIR (Ex.P/21) was registered for offence under Section 302 & 201 of IPC; thereafter, spot map was prepared and panchnama of dead-bodies of deceased were also prepared vide Ex.P/08; thereafter, the dead-bodies of deceased were sent for postmortem examination and in the postmortem examination report (Ex.P/10 & P/11), conducted by Dr. S.N. Keshari (PW-06), it has been opined that cause of death of deceased- Ramdev Rathiya and Kamla Rathiya is due to hemorrhage and shock, as a result of multiple injuries and nature of death is homicidal in nature; thereafter, memorandum statements of accused-appellants were recorded vide Ex.P/13 & P/14 and, pursuant to said memorandum statements of accused-appellants, two ‘lathi’ are seized vide Ex.P/16 & P/16, which were sent for query to medical expert vide Ex.P/12A, whereby it has been opined that injuries mentioned in postmortem report can be caused by said ‘lathi’ vide query report (Ex.P/12); thereafter, the seized articles were sent for FSL examination vide Ex.P31 and in the FSL report (Page 38-40 of paper-book) it has been opined that no blood has been found on the two ‘lathi’ seized pursuant to memorandum statements of accused-appellants. Thereafter, statement of witnesses were recorded and, after due investigation, the police filed charge-sheet in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Gharghoda and, thereafter, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions. The appellants/accused abjured their guilt and entered i