The testimony of a child witness, if deemed credible, cogent, and free from tutoring upon close scrutiny by the court, is sufficient to sustain a conviction under Section 302 of the IPC, especially when supported by medical evidence and the recovery of incriminating weapons.

Judgment on Board

Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

1. The present criminal appeal has been filed under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 29.02.2024 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Korba (C.G.) in Sessions Case No. 20 of 2023, whereby the appellant has been convicted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to imprisonment for life along with a fine of Rs. 1000/-, in default of payment of fine, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months.

2. The brief facts of the case are that on 14.09.2022, at about 23:30 hours, the daughter of the deceased, Neha Kanwar (PW-01), lodged a merg intimation (Exhibit P-01) stating that on the same day at about 07:30 PM, the nephew of her neighbor Dharam Singh, namely Gaurav (PW-03), came to her house and informed that her father, Babulal Kanwar, was lying on the road near his house with bleeding injuries on his head. Thereafter, she along with her mother Ganga Bai (PW-02) went to the spot near the house of Dharam Singh and found the deceased lying in a pool of blood with serious head injuries. It was further reported that the appellant Ramadhar Miri had a prior dispute with the deceased and had threatened him earlier in the evening at about 05:00 PM over an issue relating to an electric wire. On the basis of the said information, FIR (Exhibit P-19) was registered against the appellant. The inquest (Exhibit P-06) over the dead body was conducted and the body was sent for postmortem to District Hospital, Korba. Dr. Bhojkumar Sahu (PW-05) conducted the postmortem and submitted his report (Exhibit P-10), wherein he found grievous incised injuries on the left side of the head and opined that the death was homicidal in nature caused due to head injury resulting in fracture of skull and damage to brain. The spot map (Exhibit P-03) was prepared and a related document was obtained from the Patwari (Exhibit P-26). Blood-stained and plain soil were seized from the spot vide seizure memo (Exhibit P-08). The appellant was arrested on 15.09.2022 and his memorandum statement (Exhibit P-13) was recorded, pursuant to which a Tangiya (axe) was seized from his house vide seizure memo (Exhibit P-14). The said weapon was sent to the doctor for query, and the doctor submitted his report (Exhibit P-11) opining that the injuries found on the body of the deceased could have been caused by the said weapon. The clothes of the deceased were seized vide seizure memo (Exhibit P-21). The seized articles, including the full shirt of the deceased (Exhibit A), the Tangiya (Exhibit B), and the blood-stained and plain soil (Exhibits C1 and D2), were sent for chemical examination to the Regional FSL, Bilaspur, from where report (Exhibit P-C1) was received. As per the FSL report, human blood was detected on the shirt of the deceased and the seized weapon, and the blood found on the weapon was of “O” group, while the soil samples were also found stained with blood.

3. Statements of the witnesses under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were recorded and, after completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed before the learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Korba. The case was thereafter committed to the Court of Sessions and was tried by the learned Sessions Judge, Korba.

4. The learned trial Court framed charge against the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.