Judgment on Board

Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

1. Heard Mr. Ashutosh Mishra, learned counsel appearing for the appellant. Also heard Dr. Saurabh Kumar Pande, learned Deputy Advocate General, appearing for the State/respondent.

2. The present criminal appeal has been preferred by the appellant/accused under Section 415(2) of the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short, “BNSS”), assailing the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 29.01.2025 passed by the learned Additional Session Judge, Gharghoda, District Raigarh (C.G.) (hereinafter referred to as “the learned trial Court”) in Sessions Case No. 40 of 2019, whereby the appellant has been convicted and sentenced as under:

3. Brief facts of the case are that, on 15.01.2019 at about 08:30 a.m., the complainant, Sukhdas Panika (PW-1), reported that he was the Kotwar (village watchman) of Village Jharan and that on the same day at around 06:00 a.m., information spread in the village that a dead body was lying beside the road at Jharan Chowk. Upon reaching the spot, he found a large crowd gathered there and saw a dead body lying face down near the roadside. There were injuries on the right side of the forehead and on the left hand of the deceased, and blood stains were found on his shirt and on the surrounding area. A blood-stained shirt was also lying at a short distance from the body. The villagers identified the deceased as Rameshwar Painkra. It appeared that someone had murdered him and thrown the body there. On the basis of the said information, Assistant Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar Ekka (PW-7) registered a merg intimation vide Ex.P/1 under Merg No. 0/2019 and informed the S.D.M., Lailunga. Notices under Section 175 of the Cr.P.C. were issued to witnesses to remain present during the inquest proceedings vide Ex.P/5, and the inquest report (Naksha Panchayatnama) was prepared vide Ex.P/6. As the death appeared to be homicidal in nature, an application for postmortem examination of the deceased was prepared vide Ex.P/7 in accordance with the opinion of the panch witnesses, and the dead body was sent to C.H.C., Lailunga through Constable No. 1132, Ramesh Yadav, to whom a duty certificate vide Ex.P/25 was issued.

4. On 15.01.2019, Assistant Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar Ekka (PW-7) prepared the spot map vide Ex.P/2 and seized from the place of occurrence one blood-stained half shirt of red, white and blue colour, blood-stained soil and plain soil, and from the house of the appellant, blood-stained soil and plain soil, in the presence of witnesses Divya Lochan Chauhan (PW-2) and Ratan Yadav (PW-3), vide seizure memo Ex.P/3. Thereafter, upon returning to the police station, the merg enquiry officer registered numbered Merg Intimation No. 6/2019 vide Ex.P/4.

5. Dr. Gulshan Sidar (PW-8) conducted the postmortem examination on the dead body of deceased Rameshwar Painkra and found injuries at various places on his body, including internal hemorrhage in the posterior part of the head. The postmortem report was prepared vide Ex.P/8, wherein it was opined that the death was caused due to severe internal head injury and internal bleeding, and that the nature of death was homicidal. During the postmortem examination, a white cloth stained with blood and a maroon-coloured full pant were sealed and handed over to Constable Ramesh Yadav, who, upon returning to the police station, produced the said articles, which were seized by Inspector B. Ekka (PW-9) vide seizure memo Ex.P/14.

6. After completion of the merg enquiry, Inspector B. Ekka (PW-9) registered First Information Report (FIR) vide Ex.P/26 on 16.01.2019 against an unknown person for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC, bearing Crime No. 8/2019. On the sam