The court affirmed that child witness testimony can be reliable and sufficient for conviction if evaluated carefully, alongside corroborating evidence.

Judgment :

(Ramesh Sinha, CJ.)

1. This criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the CrPC is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 27.07.2018 passed by the learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Manendragarh, District- Korea (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No.104/2014, by which the appellant herein has been convicted for offence under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo Imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.1000/-, in default of payment of fine, to further undergo S.I. for 03 months and under Section 326 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for 03 years and fine of Rs.1000/-, in default of payment of fine, to further undergo S.I. for 03 months.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on the date of incident i.e. 19/05/2014, the complainant Devnarayan Gond (PW-2) had gone to the house of Gajrup Singh Gond of the village to work in a marriage function. His mother Kamla Bai, father Thakur Prasad, sons Lallu Prasad and Shiv Prasad, daughter Rajkumari and his wife Sukavariya (accused) were in the house. Then Lallu Prasad (PW-7) and Raghu (PW-5) came to Gajrup Singh Gond's house and informed the complainant that Kamla Bai, Thakur Prasad and Rajkumari had been seriously injured. When the complainant came to his house, he saw that his mother Kamla Bai was lying on a cot outside the house, moaning with serious injuries on her face and mouth and his father Thakur Prasad was lying on the ground, with injuries on his head, legs and face and his daughter Rajkumari had also injured in the mouth. Regarding the incident, Rajkumari told that Sukawariya (accused) was leaving the house with Mahua in a sack and when she refused, Sukawariya beat Kamala Bai, Thakur Prasad and Rajkumari with an iron crowbar and ran away from the house. The complainant informed his neighbours Santosh (PW-6) and Sukhmaniya (PW-10) about the above and took Kamala Bai and Thakur Prasad in Kallu's car of the same village to Khargawan Hospital for treatment, from where, on referral, he took them to District Hospital, Baikunthpur, where Kamala Bai and Thakur Prasad died during treatment at night. Injured Rajkumari was also treated at Baikunthpur Hospital.

3. On the information of the incident given by the complainant Devnarayan (PW-2) in the police station Baikunthpur, Sub- Inspector J.S. Kanwar (PW-16) filed an unnumbered Merg Intimiation No.-0/2014 (Ex.P-3) regarding the death of Thakur Prasad and Kamla Bai and against the accused, an unnumbered First Information Report No. 0/2014 was registered under sections 302, 323 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Ex.P-4). Thereafter on the same date i.e. 20/05/2014, the panchnama of the dead bodies of deceased Kamla Bai and deceased Thakur Prasad (Ex.P-5 and Ex.P-6 respectively) was prepared in the presence of witnesses, and for getting the post-mortem of their bodies done, duty certificate (Ex.P-19) was issued to constable Arju Ram Morche, and for post mortem the bodies were sent by writing a complaint (Ex.P-14 and P-15) to the Medical Officer of District Hospital, Baikunthpur. wherein, Dr. H.S. Shende (PW-13) conducted the postmortem over the dead body of the deceased Thakur Prasad and deceased Kamla Bai (Ex.P-14A and Ex.P-15A respectively) and while conducting the postmortem, he found uncountable injuries over the dead body of the deceased Thakur Prasad and deceased Kamla Bai.

4. Some of the injuries sustained by Thakur Prasad as per the postmortem report are as follows:-

“(i) On external examination of the dead body, it was found that Rigor Martis was present in the dead body, his mouth was swollen, his tongue was inside his teeth, eyes were closed, both pupils of the eyes were dilated.

(ii) On the front part of his right shoulder there was a stapes sulcus (stab wound) measuring 3 cm * 1/2 cm upto the depth of bone.

(iii) On the left side below the eye, there was a stapes sulcus measuring 3 cm * 1/2 cm upto the depth of bone which was present in the region below t