Judgment on board

Per Ramesh Sinha, C.J.

08.05.2026

1. This criminal appeal filed by the appellants-accused under Section 374(2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 09.09.2021, passed by the learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Pendraroad, District- Bilaspur (C.G.) in Sessions Case No. 25/2019, whereby the appellants-accused have been convicted as under:-

Both the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 22.06.2019 at about 07:00 a.m., the informant Lalchand Puri informed the Marwahi Police Station that, upon receiving information regarding the murder of Amartiya Bai at Lalmatia Tola, Village- Katra, he reached the spot and found the deceased lying dead in the courtyard of her house. It was alleged that the incident had occurred between 08:00 p.m. on 21.06.2019 and 07:00 a.m. on 22.06.2019. The informant noticed injuries on the head near the right ear and also on the back of the deceased. It was further stated that there had been a quarrel between Shiv Prasad and Ramprasad during the night.

3. On the basis of the said information, the police of Police Station Marwahi reached the spot and recorded a merg intimation (rural information) vide Ex. P-03. On the basis of the same, inquest proceedings were initiated vide Ex. P-20, and the inquest was conducted over the dead body. Inspector Pradeep Kumar Arya, who reached the spot, prepared the merg intimation as stated by Lalchand Puri. Thereafter, notices to witnesses were issued vide Ex. P-21, and the spot map/panchanama was prepared vide Ex. P-09. An FIR was registered vide Ex. P-22 for offences punishable under Sections 302, 326 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

4. An autopsy on the deceased was conducted, and as per the postmortem report Ex. P-14, the Medical Officer opined that the death of Amartiya Bai was homicidal in nature. The injured Ramprasad Ayam was medically examined, and his treatment records were obtained from SIMS Hospital, Bilaspur. Statements of the injured Ramprasad Ayam and other witnesses were recorded during investigation.

5. Pursuant to memorandum statements, a wooden stick was seized from accused Arjun Singh vide Ex. P-7. Blood-stained and plain soil were seized from the spot vide Ex. P-6. The accused persons were arrested and the seized articles were sent to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory for chemical examination. Upon completion of investigation, the charge-sheet was filed before the Court of Shri Anand Kumar Singh, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Marwahi, and the case was thereafter committed to the Sessions Court for trial on 20.09.2019.

6. Charges under Sections 302/34 and 326/34 of the Indian Penal Code were framed against the accused. The accused denied the charges and pleaded innocence in his statement recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and claimed false implication. No defence evidence was adduced.

7. On behalf of the prosecution, the statements of 14 witnesses were recorded before the trial Court and 31 documents were exhibited.

8. The trial Court upon appreciation of oral and documentary evidence available on record, by its judgment dated 09.09.2021, convicted the appellants for offences as aforementioned, against which, this criminal appeal has been filed.

9. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants would submit that the impugned judgment dated 09.09.2021 passed by the learned Trial Court is perverse, erroneous and unsustainable in law, as it has been rendered without proper appreciation of the evidence on record and is liable to be set aside. It is further submitted that the learned Court below has failed to appreciate the material fact that on the