JUDGMENT

Sujoy Paul, J. - The Death Reference and Criminal Appeal are arising out of impugned judgment dated 05.03.2019 passed in Case No.400160/2015 whereby appellant was held guilty for committing the offences and sentenced as under :-

FACTUAL BACKGROUND :-

2. The case of the prosecution before the Court below was that on 09.06.2015 at around 1:30 P.M. in village Jhagraha, Police Station Amlai, District Shahdol, the appellant raped and murdered 12 years old girl in the vacant room of Kailash Kewat and tried to hide her dead body under the paddy straws.

3. To elaborate, on 09.06.2015 the family members of victim were taking rest in their house. The father of victim was sleeping. The younger sister of victim (P.W.3) was watching T.V. with the victim. The victim told her younger sister (P.W.3) that she is going to answer the call of the nature. When she did not return for quite sometime, (P.W.3) came out of the house and found that in the house of Kailash Kewat, there is a vacant room which is opened. Out of curiosity, (P.W.3) went in front of that door and found that appellant is trying to hide. Out of fear, she came back. Thereafter, family members started searching for the victim. During search at around 7:00 P.M., the uncle of deceased (P.W.5) found that the dead body of victim is lying on the floor of a room of Kailash Kewat (P.W.9). The said room was being used to keep paddy straws & chaff. The legs of deceased were covered by using a heap of paddy straws.

4. The father of deceased (P.W.1) received an information on phone from his younger brother (P.W.5) about the dead body of her daughter. He, in turn, lodged the merg intimation. The police reached the scene of crime and prepared a punchnama of the dead body. Thereafter, the post mortem of dead body of the victim was conducted. The relevant educational qualification documents of victim were obtained from her father (P.W.1). During investigation, the statement of (P.W.3) was recorded under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C.

5. A site map was prepared. The undergarments and clothes of victim were recovered. In addition, the plain and blood stained soil were recovered. All the seized materials were sealed and a seizure memo was prepared. The appellant was arrested on 10.6.2015 and on the basis of his statement, from his house a blood stained T-shirt and underwear was recovered. The statement of accused was recorded in a DVD. The medical examination of appellant was conducted and during examination, his semen sample was also taken. The semen of accused, his clothes and blood sample were seized and were sent for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and to the DN