A confession must be truly voluntary and free from police influence for admissibility in court; the prosecution is required to establish a clear circumstantial link to the accused, failing which reasonable doubt arises.

JUDGMENT :

MANISH CHOUDHURY, J.

1. The present criminal appeal from Jail under Section 383 , Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [‘Cr.P.C.’ or ‘the Code’ for short] is preferred by taking exception to a Judgment and Order dated 31.07.2019 passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Udalguri in Sessions Case No. 80 of 2017, which arose out of G.R. Case No. 821 of 2017 and Dimakuchi Police Station Case No. 60 of 2017. Finding guilty of the offence of murder under Section 300 , INDIAN PENAL CODE [IPC], the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Udalguri, by the afore-mentioned Judgment and Order, has sentenced the accused-appellant under Section 302 , IPC to undergo imprisonment for life. It has been observed in the Judgment and Order of conviction and sentence that there is no need to award fine in the given circumstances of the case.

2. The investigation into the case, Dimakuchi Police Station Case No. 60 of 2017 was commenced on lodgement of a First Information Report [FIR] by one Ram Charan Gour [PW-1] as the informant before the Officer In-Charge, Dimakuchi Police Station at 08-30 a.m. on 10.07.2017. In the FIR, the informant-Ram Charan Gour [PW-1] stated inter alia to the effect that when at around 02-20 a.m. on 10.07.2017 his daughter-in-law, Champawati Gour was sleeping, his son-Dhaniram Gour, that is, the accused killed her by inflicting blows on her neck by a dao. The informant mentioned that his son, that is, the accused was having mental disturbance from a few days earlier. On receipt of the FIR [Ext.1], the Officer In-Charge, Dimakuchi Police Station [PW-8] registered the same as Dimakuchi Police Station Case No. 60 of 2017 for the offence under Section 302 , IPC and took up the investigation of the case as its Investigating Officer [I.O.] as he had already undertaken preliminary investigation of the case in reference to general diary entry, already registered as Dimakuchi Police Station General Diary Entry No. 185 dated 10.07.2017.

3. During the course of investigation, the I.O. [PW-8] visited the place of occurrence [P.O.] on 10.07.2017 itself and prepared a Sketch Map of the P.O. [Ext.5]. An inquest proceeding on the dead-body of the deceased was performed on 10.07.2017 by the Executive Magistrate in presence of the I.O. [PW-8] and the Executive Magistrate prepared an Inquest Report [Ext.3] recording the findings therein. After the inquest proceeding, the dead-body of the deceased was sent to Udalguri Civil Hospital on 10.07.2017 itself for post-mortem examination and the Medical & Health Officer, Udalguri Civil Hospital performed the post-mortem examination on the dead-body of the deceased on 10.07.2017 and prepared a Post-Mortem Examination [PME] Report [Ext.4] recording his findings therein. The I.O. [PW-8] also recorded the statements of a number of witnesses under Section 161 , Cr.P.C. The accused after arrest, was produced before the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate [CJM], Udalguri on 10.07.2017 along with the arrest memo, the forwarding report and other relevant documents. The I.O. [PW-8] also produced a dao, seized by him, before th