NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR CRA No. 1774 of 2017 Judgment reserved on : 20.06.2024 Judgment delivered on :29.07.2024 (Arising out of judgment dated 07.10.2017 passed in Sessions Trial No.41/2013 by the 1^st Additional Sessions Judge, Manendragarh, District - Koriya, Chhattisgarh)

 Jitendra Jaiswal S/o Laxman Prasad Jaiswal, aged about 28 years, R/o Gram Kewra, Police Station Bhaiyathan District Surajpur, Chhattisgarh.

---- Appellant Versus  State of Chhattisgarh, through District Magistrate Koria, District Koria, Chhattisgarh.

---- Respondent For Appellant :- Mr. Shailendra Dubey and Ms. Shivali Dubey, Advocates.

For Respondent-State :- Mr. Vivek Mishra, Panel Lawyer.

Division Bench Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal &

Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay Agrawa l

C A V Judgment

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J

1. Invoking jurisdiction of this Court under Section 374(2) of the CrPC, the sole appellant herein has preferred this criminal appeal calling in question legality, validity and correctness of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 07.10.2017 passed by the 1^st Additional Sessions Judge, Manendragarh, District-Koriya, Chhattisgarh in Sessions Trial No.41/2013 by which he has been convicted for offence under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and further sentenced to pay fine of ₹

1,000/-; in default of payment of fine he has to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for 6 months.

2. The case of the prosecution, in nutshell, is that on 21.12.2012 in the midnight at 1:00 am at village Ghutra, the appellant assaulted his wife Pooja (now deceased) by knife by which she suffered grievous injuries and died and thereby committed the aforesaid offence.

3. It is further case of the prosecution that the marriage of the appellant and the deceased was solemnized in the year 2004 as per social customs and after marriage they used to live at Gram Kewra. After marriage appellant did not do any job and used to quarrel with the deceased after consuming cannabis (ं(cid:2)(cid:3)ा(cid:2)), due to which, she came to her maternal house at village Ghutra along with her 6 years old daughter and started living separately from the appellant, however, appellant used to visit to the house of the deceased to meet her and he also promised not to quarrel with her again thereafter, the deceased called the appellant and asked him to live with her at Gram Ghutra and thereafter, the appellant started living with her. On 20.12.2012, the appellant and the deceased went to Baikunthpur and while returning home, on the way, the appellant started quarrelling with the deceased and when they reached home, family members trying to solve the dispute between them. On the same day, after having dinner they went to sleep separately and in the late night at about 1:00 am after hearing the voice of bachao bachao.., mother of the deceased Kalawati (PW-2) and Geetanjali (PW-3), sister of the deceased, went towards the deceased and saw her in the pool of blood. Sunil Kumar Jaiswal (PW-1), maternal uncle of the deceased, also reached there, on the call of Geetanjali (PW-2), and on being asked, deceased told him (PW-1) that the appellant assaulted on her neck by sharp edged weapon, thereafter, the deceased was escorted to the hospital, but on the way to the hospital, she died. The said incident was reported to the police by Sunil Kumar Jaiswal (PW-1) pursuant to which merg intimation and FIR were registered vide Exs.P/1 & P/2, respectively. Spot map was prepared vide Ex.P/4. Inquest proceedings (Ex.P/8) were conducted and the dead body of the deceased was sent for postmortem. As per postmortem report (Ex.P/13) proved by Dr. Surendra Singh (PW-11), cause of death was due to massive haemorrhage and shock and nature of death was homicidal. Pursuant to memorandum statement of the appellant (Ex.P/5) weapon of offence i.e. knife was seized vide Ex.p/6. Other articles were also seized. Seized articles were sent for chemical analysis to FSL