IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that corroborative evidence is essential in murder cases, especially when convicting based on eyewitness testimony.

JUDGMENT :

Per Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati, J:

1. The accused-appellant in this appeal, through Jail, has been convicted and sentenced as below vide judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 19.01.2023 (in Sessions Case No. 128/2018 - CIS Reg. No. 128/2018 - State of Rajasthan v. Rupa), passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Banswara.

1.1. As indicated above, the accused-appellant had been convicted under the aforementioned provision, and while doing so, the learned Trial Court, being the Court of Sessions, had passed the death sentence against the accused-appellant vide the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence. Therefore, in accordance with Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, the matter has been submitted before this Hon’ble High Court for confirmation of such sentence, by way of Murder Reference No. 01/2023.

1.2. We also have noticed that on behalf of the accused-appellant, an appeal being the above-numbered D.B. Criminal Appeal (Db) No. 77/2023 has been preferred against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence. Accordingly, both the murder reference and the criminal appeal are being decided together by this common judgment.

2. Brief facts of the case are that the prosecution was set in motion by a written report (Ex.P. 1) dated 15.06.2018 submitted by the one Heera (PW-1) in Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Banswara to the then present Head Constable Omprakash No. 567, Police Thana, Danpur, district Banswara. It stated that, on 15.06.2018 at around 02:00 am when he was sleeping outside his house, Reshma (daughter of the accused-appellant) came running and screamed that her father Rupa, is assaulting her mother (Iteri) and her brother (Dilip). Upon hearing the same, he ran towards the place of incident and in the light of torch, saw Rupa hitting his wife and son on their heads with lathi, with an intention to cause their death. After seeing PW-1 at the place of incident, the accused-appellant fled away from the spot. Thereafter, Heera (PW-1) called Bada, Prabhu Lal, Tulsi Ram on the spot of offence in question, wherein they saw Ittari and Dilip lying on the ground and they were having head injuries and blood was flowing out of their heads. Ittari died on her way to the hospital and Dilip was admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Banswara for treatment.

3. On the basis of the aforementioned report, the police registered a First Information Report bearing No. 92/2018 against the present accused-appellant for the offences under Sections 307 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the investigation commenced accordingly.

3.1. During the course of the investigation, the police arrested the accused-appellant on 17.06.2018. Later on, after the death of Dilip during the course of his treatment, and after completion of the investigation, a charge-sheet under Section 302, IPC was filed by the concerned investigating authority. The accused-appellant was furnished the copy of the charge-sheet as required under Section 207 CrPC and accordingly, the Sessions Case bearing No. 128/2018 was registered against the accused-appellant.

4. Thereafter, the charges were read over to the accused-appellant, and since he denied the same and claimed trial, the trial of the case commenced accordingly before the learned Trial Court.

5. During the course of Trial, on behalf of prosecution, 19 witnesses were produced for examination, 37 documents were exhibited and 2 articles were produced.

6. After recording of the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, during trial, the statement of the accused-appellant was recorded under Section 313 CrPC, during course whereof, he stood by the denial of the charges and the contents of the statements of the prosecution witnesses in toto, however, he did not adduce any evidence in defence. Thus, since the accused-appellant pleaded ‘not guilty’ and claimed to be innocent while