Judgment on Board

Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

(Cause title taken from Case Information System)

1. The present criminal appeal has been filed under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 by the appellant Sanjay @ Sanju Verma against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 12.10.2022 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, District Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai (C.G.) in Sessions Case No. 14/2019, whereby the appellant has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life along with a fine of Rs. 2,000/-, and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo imprisonment for a period of three months.

2. The brief facts of the case are that on 07.05.2019 at about 07:20 PM, the appellant Sanjay @ Sanju Verma brought his wife Lata Verma (deceased) to the Community Health Center, Khairagarh within the jurisdiction of Police Station Khairagarh, where she was declared dead by the attending doctors. On receiving such information, merg intimation under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was recorded and necessary proceedings were undertaken. During the course of inquiry, finding the death to be suspicious in nature, First Information Report was registered against the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code on 16.05.2019. During investigation, inquest over the dead body of the deceased was conducted in presence of witnesses and the dead body was sent for postmortem examination, wherein the Medical Officer opined that the cause of death was asphyxia and the nature of death was homicidal. The spot map was prepared and various articles were seized during the course of investigation.

3. During the course of investigation, the appellant was taken into custody and was interrogated, wherein he made a memorandum statement leading to discovery, pursuant to which certain incriminating articles were seized from his possession. The seized articles were sent for forensic examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory, and the report was obtained. Statements of witnesses under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were recorded. After completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed before the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

4. The case was committed to the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Khairagarh, District Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai (C.G.) for trial. The learned trial Court framed charge against the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The appellant denied the charge and claimed to be tried.

5. In order to bring home the charge against the appellant, the prosecution has examined 21 witnesses and adduced documentary evidence in support of its case. The statement of the appellant under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was recorded, wherein he denied the incriminating circumstances appearing against him, pleaded innocence and stated that he has been falsely implicated in the present case. In defence, the appellant has examined Neha Verma (DW-1) in support of his case.

6. After appreciation of the oral as well as documentary evidence brought on record, the learned trial Court found the appellant guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and convicted and sentenced him as stated hereinabove. Hence, this appeal has been preferred by the appellant.

7. Learned counsel appearing for the appellant would submit that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. It is contended that the entire case rests on circumstantial evidence and there is no eye-witness to the incident, and the chain of circumstances is not complete so as to point unerringly towards the guilt of the appellant. He would further subm