Per Virender Singh, J.

1. Appellant- Vijay Kumar S/o Sh. Prithi Ram R/o Village Doiyan at present Prangla, Tehsil Akhnoor, (hereinafter to be referred to as `accused') has been sentenced to death after being convicted under Section 302 RPC vide impugned judgment dated 14/16.11.2009 of 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu. He is also sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and fine of Rs.10,000/- for the offence punishable under Section 307 RPC, in default of payment of fine, to further undergo six months' simple imprisonment; rigorous imprisonment for five years and fine of Rs.500/- under Section 326 RPC, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for three months; rigorous imprisonment for one year for the offence punishable under Section 324 RPC and simple imprisonment of one year for the offence punishable under Section 448 RPC. However, all the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently.

2. Aggrieved of the impugned judgment of conviction and sentence, accused has filed Criminal Appeal No.05/2010. The sentence imposed by the trial Court is subject to the confirmation of this Court in terms of Section 374 Cr.P.C. (State Code), hence Confirmation No.23/2009.

3. Three minor children namely Arjun (aged 6/7 years), Rakesh (aged 4 years) and Santosh Kumari (aged 7/8 years) are the deceased in this case; whereas PWs Jia Lal, Kamlesh Kumari and another minor child Gulshan (aged 2/3 years) are the injured.

Prosecution case in brief:

4. On 20.09.2000 at 02.15 hours, PW Kaka Ram complainant herein, along with one PW Suraj Parkash lodged a verbal report with Police Station Akhnoor that about 1.15 a.m. during wee hours of 20.09.2000, he (Kaka Ram) heard cries of Mst. Kamlesh Kumari saying save, save, killed, killed, whereupon he ran towards the house of Kamlesh Kumari and saw that some people had already assembled there and Kamlesh Kumari was saying that her brother-in-law (real sister's husband), the accused herein, armed with a Dharati (sharp edged weapon) had committed murderous assault on her husband and minor children and after murdering her family escaped from the scene of occurrence. Three children namely Arjun, Rakesh and Santosh Kumari were seen lying in the pool of blood on their bed and Jia Lal, Kamlesh Kumari and Gulshan (the other minor child), in a seriously injured condition. Alongside the beds, a nylon chapel having mark `V.K.' was lying on the floor. On this, case FIR No.35/2000 came to be registered against the accused under Sections 302/307/448 RPC in Police Station Akhnoor.

5. It surfaced during the investigation that accused was staying with PW Jia Lal only as he is related to Jia Lal from parental side. Kamlesh Kumari had arranged marriage of the accused with her real sister-Sudesh Kumari, but the accused used to beat his wife oftenly, who started going to her parents house very frequently. However, Kamlesh Kumari and her husband Jia Lal managed to bring Sudesh Kumari back to the house of the accused on 2/3 occasions, but few days before the present occurrence when Sudesh Kumari had gone to her parents house after she was beaten by the accused, her parents had refused to send her back, upon which, Kamlesh Kumari and Jia Lal were asked by the accused to intervene who flatly refused and told the accused that he himself should go and bring his wife back to her matrimonial home which was not liked by the accused and he nourished grudge on this count and attacked Jia Lal and his entire family on the night intervening 19/20.09.2000 when they were sleeping in the room.

6. SI Chander Mohan PW, the investigating officer of the case, visited the place of occurrence, took dead bodies of three deceased children in his possession and sent them for postmortem. The injured namely Kamlesh Kumari, Jia Lal and minor child Gulshan were also sent for medical treatment to Khour Hospital. As they had received serious injuries, they were referred to Government Medical College Jammu for their further tre

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