The court modified conviction from murder to culpable homicide under Section 304 IPC, establishing that the incident arose from sudden provocation and was not premeditated.

JUDGMENT :

Chandra Dhari Singh, J.

1. This criminal appeal has been filed against a judgement and order dated 30.01.2017 passed by the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge/FTC-II, Kushinagar at Padrauna in Sessions Trial No. 253 of 2015 arising out of case crime No. 525 of 2015, under Section 302 IPC, police station Kaptanganj, district Kushinagar whereby the learned Judge convicted and sentenced the appellant-Ramvijay to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 20,000/- (rupees twenty thousand only) under section 302 IPC.

Facts of the case

2. The facts that formed the bedrock of the present appeal are that a written report was given by Ram Rakshha to the Station House Officer, police station Kaptanganj, district Kushinagar that he was married to Sonmati and from their wedlock one boy and a girl were born. Wife of the first informant died about 18 years ago. The marriage of Ramvijay, brother of the first informant, was solemnized with one Indira Devi. After the death of wife of the first informant, both first informant and his brother Ramvijay by mutual consent started living with Indira Devi as husband and wife. Indira Devi had three daughters aged about 16, 14 and 8 years and all of them are living in a joint family. On the date of occurrence, the first informant had gone to bank of river to get the sand out. All the children were at home. In the night some altercation took place between Indira Devi and Ramvijay due to which Ramvijay assaulted Indira Devi with spade on her neck, resulting in her death. Ramvijay fled from the spot and the body of Indira Devi is lying in the house.

3. After registration of the case, the law set into motion. Since, the Station House Officer of the concerned police station was not present, the investigation of the case was entrusted to PW-7, SI Arvind Mishra, who was posted at police station Kaptanganj, district Kushinagar. He copied the FIR in the case diary and rushed to the spot and conducted inquest on the body of the deceased and prepared inquest report in the presence of witnesses of inquest. He inspected the spot on the pointing out of the first informant and recovered the weapon of assault in the presence of Ram Rakshha, Lallan Prasad and Shri Ram Singh and prepared memo thereof. He also collected bloodstained and plain earth and kept it in two different container and prepared memos thereof.

4. Thereafter, the investigation of the case was taken up by PW-8, Jaisraj Yadav. He arrested the accused at 08:30 hours on 15.3.2015 and recorded his statement. The accused confessed to his crime. PW-8, Jaisraj Yadav after completion of investigation submitted charge sheet against the appellant on 07.4.2015 under Section 302 IPC.

5. As the case was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, learned Magistrate committed the case to the Court of Sessions, where case was registered as Sessions Trial No. 253 of 2015. Learned Sessions Judge, Kushinagar vide order dated 03.6.2015 framed the charge against the appellant under Section 302 IPC, who denied the charge and claimed to be tried.

6. To bring home guilt of the appellant beyond the hilt, the prosecution has examined as many as eight witnesses. PW-1, Ram Rakshha is the first informant of the case, PW-2, Lallan, PW-3, Raju, PW-4, Geeta have been examined as witnesses of facts, PW-5, Smt. Sona Devi is the witness of inquest, PW-6, Dr. Bhavnath Pandey, who conducted autopsy on the body of the deceased, PW-7, SI Arvind Mishra, who conducted initial investigation and PW-8, Jaisraj Yadav, the investigating officer, who submitted charge sheet.

7. After the cl