2024:CGHC:46958-DB NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRA No. 1661 of 2022 Chintamani @ Chintu Patel S/o Hiralal Aged About 20 Years R/o Village Kesharpur, P.S. Basana, District : Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh ... Appellant versus State of Chhattisgarh, Through The Station House Officer Police Station Basana, District : Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh ... Respondent For Appellant : Mr. Manoj Kumar Jaiswal, Advocate For Respondent/State : Mr. Shashank Thakur, Dy Advocate General Hon'ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon'ble Smt. Rajani Dubey , Judge Judgment on Board Per Ramesh Sinha , Chief Justice

29 . 11 .2024

1. This criminal appeal filed by the appellant/accused under Section Digitally 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, signed by ROHIT ROHIT KUMAR KUMAR CHANDRA CHANDRADate:

2024.12.03 ‘Cr.P.C.’) is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction

11:09:04 +0530 and order of sentence dated 29.09.2022 passed by the 1^st Additional Sessions Judge, Saraipali, District – Mahasamund (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No.29/2021, whereby the appellant/ accused has been convicted for the offence punishable under Sections 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to undergo R.I. for life imprisonment and fine of Rs.100/-, in default of payment of fine, additional RI for 01 month.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 25.02.2021 complainant Bhushit Lal Patel (PW-1), husband of the deceased had given information to the Station House Officer of Police Station, Basna, District Mahasamund about sudden death of the deceased that on 24.02.2021 at about 09.20 pm, the accused/appellant came to his and called to Trilochan Patel, son of the complainant, upon which, as Trilochan was not at home, his wife, the deceased came out and said to the appellant that Trilochan was not in the house, thereafter, after 15-20 minutes, his sister-in-law (bhabhi) Balkunwar (PW-6) and his daughter-in-law (bahu) Malti Patel informed him that a woman is shouting outside, ‘save me, save me’, upon which, the complainant after taking torch with him came out of the house and he along with Kantaprasad (PW-4) and Kumar Bariha (PW-3) went towards Dolchand Choudhary’s barn and saw that her wife deceased, Raimoti Patel, was lying in a pool of blood under the bamboo tree and upon asking her, what happened to her, Raimoti said that Chintamai (accused) had assaulted her. Her wife had received grievous injuries over her face, eyes & mouth and blood was coming out. The deceased was taken to Bamhni Hospital for treatment, whereform she was taken to Hospital at Basna, wherein it has been informed by the Doctor that the deceased had died. It is alleged that by the complainant that his wife Raimoti has died due to assault by the accused Chintamani Patel. On receiving untimely and sudden information about the death of the deceased on 25.02.2021, Merg Intimation was prepared vide Ex.P-6 and on the said date, after summoning the witnesses vide Ex.P-2, inquest over the dead body of the deceased was prepared vide Ex.P-3. Then the dead body was sent for conducting post-mortem to Community Health Centre, Basna vide Ex.P-17A, wherein postmortem was conducted by Dr. Varsha Satpathi (PW-16) vide Ex.P-12, who found following injuries :

(i) Lacerated wound over left temporal region 4x3x2 cm clotted blood were present.

(ii) Lacerated wound over zygomatic area 2x1x1 cm.

She opined that the case of death was due to head injury lead to hemorrhage shock by heavy force by hard and blunt object, duration within 24 hrs. and the nature of death was homicidal.

3. Dead body of the deceased was handed over to Bhuneshwar Patel (PW-9), brother-in-law (devar) of the deceased on supurdnama vide Ex.P-13. During the course of investigation, blood stained soil and plain soil from near the scene of incident was seized vide Ex.P-8. The accused/appellant was taken into custody and his memorandum statement was recorded vide Ex.P- 7 and at his instance, two pieces of big bricks with bloo