Conviction cannot rest solely on unreliable eyewitness testimony; corroborative evidence is essential for upholding a murder conviction.

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1.This criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the CrPC is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 20-4-2018 passed by the 8^th Additional Sessions Judge, Durg, in Sessions Trial No.92/2016, by which the sole appellant herein has been convicted under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life & pay fine of ₹ 500/-, in default, additional rigorous imprisonment for three months.

2.Case of the prosecution, in short, is that on 18- 2-2016, at about 4.30 p.m., in front of the house of Sushma Shrivastava at Ekta Nagar, Police Station Bhilai-3, District Durg, the appellant assaulted Surekha Nirmalkar on her stomach by knife by which she suffered grievous injuries and died, and thereby committed the offence. The incident was witnessed by Deep Kumar @ Chiku (PW- 4) & Dhanu @ Bhanu (PW-8) and immediately, Santosh Kumar Nirmalkar (PW-1) – husband of the deceased, reported the matter to the police vide merg intimation Ex.P-1 and FIR was lodged vide Ex.P-2. Inquest over the dead body of the deceased was conducted vide Ex.P-5. Spot map was prepared by the Investigating Officer vide Ex.P-3 (Crime Details Form). Patwari also prepared spot map vide Ex.P-7. Dead body of the deceased was sent for autopsy to Government District Hospital, Durg vide Ex.P-23. Autopsy was conducted by Dr. N.C. Rao & Dr. A.K. Nagdeve (PW-13) vide autopsy report Ex.P-24 in which cause of death was stated to be severe injury in body and heart injury. Memorandum of the accused was recorded vide Ex.P- 9 pursuant to which knife was seized from him vide Ex.P-10. Seized articles were sent for chemical examination to the FSL, Raipur from where report Ex.P-21 was received according to which blood was found on knife – Art. C, T-shirt – Art. D, full pant – Art. E, and clothes of the deceased – Arts. F1, F-2, F-3, F-4 & F-5, whereas human blood was found on T-shirt – Art. D, full pant – Art. E and clothes of the deceased – Arts. F1, F-2, F-3, F-4 & F-5, and blood group of ‘A’ was found on T-shirt – Art. D.

3.Statements of witnesses were recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC and after usual investigation, the appellant was charge-sheeted for offence under Section 302 of the IPC and the case was committed to the Court of Session, Durg from where the learned 8^th Additional Sessions Judge, Durg received the case on transfer for trial and for hearing and disposal in accordance with law where the trial was conducted.

4.The prosecution, in order to prove the offence against the appellant, examined as many as 14 witnesses and brought on record 24 documents Exs.P-1 to P-24. The defence has examined one witness Shivji Singh (DW-1) and brought on record two documents Exs.D-1 & D-2 i.e. the statements of Santosh Nirmalkar and Shishupal Yadav recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC. The accused / appellant was examined under Section 313 of the CrPC in which he denied the circumstances appearing against him and pleaded innocence and false implication.

5.The trial Court after appreciating oral and documentary evidence on record, proceeded to convict the appellant herein for offence under Section 302 of the IPC , against which he has preferred this appeal.

6.Mr. Hemant Kumar Agrawal, learned counsel appearing for the appellant, would submit that Deep Kumar @ Chiku (PW-4) & Dhanu @ Bhanu (PW-8) are not reliable eyewitnesses and therefore reliance cannot not be placed upon their evidence. Similarly, Shishupal Yadav (PW-2) & Lachchhu @ Laxmi Yadav (PW-3) are also not reliable witnesses