The prosecution must prove the nature of death beyond reasonable doubt; reliance on Section 106 of the Evidence Act was inappropriate as the burden of proof remained with the prosecution.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. Invoking appellate jurisdiction of this Court under Section 374(2) of the CrPC, the sole appellant herein has preferred this criminal appeal calling in question legality, validity and correctness of the impugned judgment and order dated 6-8-2016 passed by the Sessions Judge, Rajnandgaon in Sessions Trial No.50/2015, by which the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under with a direction to run both the sentences concurrently: -

Facts of the Case

2. Case of the prosecution, as projected by the prosecution and accepted by the trial Court, is that in the intervening night of 10th & 11th January, 2015, at Village Indawani, Police Station Somni, District Rajnandgaon, the appellant caused deep cut wrist injury to Bhuneshwari by which she died and thereafter, in order to screen himself from the offence, destroyed the evidence and thereby committed the offence. Further case of the prosecution is that on 25-12-2014, the appellant herein came to the house of his sister Draupati (PW-6) at Village Indawani and Bhuneshwari (now deceased) had also came along with her mother Sonbati (PW-11) to the said house which belonged to her uncle Deena Prasad (PW-5), who happens to be father-in-law of Draupati (PW-6). It is also the case of the prosecution that in the intervening night of 10-1-2015 & 11-1-2015, Bhuneshwari was watching television along with her family members and her mother had gone to sleep. At around 1 a.m. in the intervening night of 10-1-2015 & 11-1-2015, when mother of Bhuneshwari could not find Bhuneshwari nearby, she started looking for her and then found that the appellant was also missing. Draupati (PW-6) informed that she had sent the appellant for switching off the TV and thereafter, while conducting search of house & bathroom, it was noticed that the bathroom was bolted from inside and the body of the deceased and that of the appellant were lying in the pool of blood. Information was given by Up-Sarpanch Dehar Lal Sahu (PW-7) to Police Station Somni vide Ex.P-24 upon which Investigating Officer Amarnath Tiwari (PW-15) reached to the spot of incident and sent the appellant and the deceased to the District Hospital, Rajnandgaon where deceased Bhuneshwari was declared dead. Zero morgue was registered vide Ex.P-5 and FIR was registered vide Ex.P-19. Seizure of articles including lined paper Ex.P-21 was made and same were seized vide Ex.P-4 disclosing that the deceased and the appellant wanted to get married, however, due to the family refusal and their non-acceptance, they have attempted to commit suicide. Sample writing of the appellant was also taken vide Ex.P-18 and it was seized vide Ex.P-14. Medical examination of the appellant was conducted vide Ex.P-1 by Dr. Nohar Prasad Jangde (PW-1). Naksha panchayatnama was prepared vide Ex.P-7 and spot map was prepared vide Ex.P-8. Dead body of deceased Bhuneshwari was subjected to postmortem vide Ex.P-11, which was conducted by Dr. S.N. Hussaini (PW-9) wherein cause of death was stated to be shock due to cut wrist injury along with evidence of neck compression, however, nature of death was not disclosed by the doctor. Opinion of medical expert that is called query report was sought regarding mode of death and injury on the body of the deceased, which was rendered vide Ex.P-13 by Dr. S.N. Hussaini (PW-9) on 15-1-2015. FIR was registered vide Ex.P-26 on 18-3-2015 against the appellant for offence under Sections 302 & 201 of the IPC and the appellant herein was arrested on 19-3-2015 vide Ex.P-16 and intimation of arrest was