2026:CGHC:20396-DB ALOK SHARMA Date: 2026.05.05 CRA No. 1165 of 2021

1 - Omprakash Deshmukh S/o Late Mohan Lal Deshmukh Aged About 23 Years R/o Village Gormarra, Police Station Suregaon, District Balod, Chhattisgarh., District : Balod, Chhattisgarh

2 - Chunni Bai Deshmukh W/o Late Mohan Lal Deshmukh Aged About 41 Years R/o Village Gormarra, Police Station Suregaon, District Balod, Chhattisgarh., District : Balod, Chhattisgarh ... Appellant(s)

versus

1 - State of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer Suregaon, District Balod, Chhattisgarh., District : Balod, Chhattisgarh ... Respondent(s)

For Appellant(s) : Mr. B. P. Singh, Advocate.

For Respondent/State : Mr. Sourabh Pande, Dy. Advocate General.

Hon'ble Shri Justice Ramesh Sinha, CJ Hon’ble Shri Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, J Judgment on Board

01/05/2026 Per, Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice.

1 The present appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been filed by the appellants against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 29.09.2021 passed by the learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Balod, District Balod (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No. 39/2019, whereby the appellants have been convicted for the offences under Sections 302/34 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life along with fine of Rs.100/- each under Section 302/34 IPC, and rigorous imprisonment for seven years along with fine of Rs.100/- each under Section 201/34 IPC, with default stipulation of further simple imprisonment of 30 days each for non-payment of fine, and it has been further directed that all sentences shall run concurrently.

2 Brief facts of the case are that, as per the prosecution story, on

09.05.2019 at about 10:50 AM, the appellant Omprakash Deshmukh gave information to Police Station Suregaon, District Balod (C.G.) that on the intervening night of 08/09.05.2019, he along with his family members including his mother Chunni Bai Deshmukh and father Mohanlal Deshmukh had gone to the house of one Manthir Lal Deshmukh for dinner and thereafter returned to their house and slept in their respective rooms. It is further stated that in the early morning at about 05:00 AM, when Chunni Bai tried to wake up her husband Mohanlal Deshmukh, he did not respond, upon which the appellant was informed and thereafter other family members and villagers were called, who suspected that Mohanlal Deshmukh had died. On the basis of said information, merg intimation was recorded as Merg No. 10/2019 and thereafter FIR was registered for the offence under Sections 302/34 IPC. Inquest report of the dead body of the deceased Mohanlal Deshmukh was prepared in the presence of witnesses and the dead body was sent for postmortem examination. The postmortem was conducted by the concerned medical officer, who opined the cause of death to be homicidal in nature.

3 During investigation, the investigating officer reached the spot and prepared the spot map Ex.P/1. Blood-stained and plain floor pieces along with a blood-stained bedsheet were seized from the place of occurrence vide seizure memo Ex.P/6. The statements of witnesses under Section 161 CrPC were recorded. The appellants were arrested and their memorandum statements Ex.P/2 and Ex.P/3 were recorded. On the basis of disclosure statements, articles allegedly used in the commission of offence and for wiping blood were seized at the instance of the accused persons vide seizure memo Ex.P/7 and Ex.P/8. The seized articles were sent for forensic examination and as per the FSL report, presence of human blood was found on the seized articles. After completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed against the appellants for the offences under Sections 302/34 and 201/34 of IPC.

4 Since the offences were triable exclusively by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Court of Sessions Judge, Balod, from where it was made over to the learned trial Court for its adjudication and trial in accordance with