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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI Criminal Appeal (D.B.) No.1400 of 2018 ------

(Arising out of judgment of conviction dated 24.08.2018 and order of sentence dated 29.08.2018 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge-III, West Singhbhum at Chaibasa in S.T. Case No.30/2014)

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Goma Gope @ Goma, son of Late Ramayan Gope, resident of Village Chota Lagiya, P.O. & P.S. Mufassil, Chaibasa, District Singhbhum (West). … … … Appellant Versus The State of Jharkhand. … … … Respondent ------

PRESENT : SRI ANANDA SEN, J.

: SRI PRADEEP KUMAR SRIVASTAVA, J.

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For the Appellant : Mrs. Alpana Verma, Advocate (Amicus Curiae)

For the State : Mr. Tarun Kumar, A.P.P.

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J U D G M E N T By Court, :

24th September, 2026 This Criminal Appeal is preferred on behalf of the appellant being aggrieved by the judgment of conviction dated 24.08.2018 and order of sentence dated 29.08.2018 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge-III, West Singhbhum at Chaibasa in S.T. Case No.30/2014, whereby and wherein the appellant has been convicted for offence under Sections 302 IPC. He was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment, with a fine of Rs.5,000/-.

2. We have heard Mrs. Alpana Verma, learned Amicus Curiae representing the appellant and Mr. Tarun Kumar, learned A.P.P. representing the State, at length, and have gone through the materials available on record.

3. Learned counsel representing the appellant submitted that the appellant had falsely been implicated in this case, only on the basis of conjectures and surmises. She further submitted that the appellant is facing incarceration since long without any rhymes or reason, thus he deserves to be released from custody after setting aside his judgment of conviction and order of sentence.

4. Learned A.P.P. representing the State, opposes the aforesaid prayer and submitted that the appellant had rightly been convicted in this case, as he had committed murder of his son by a knife and the Police also recovered blood-stained soil and a knife from the place of occurrence.

5. The case of the prosecution on the basis of fardbeyan of the informant - Jema Gope (wife of the appellant - Goma Gope @ Goma), is that on the fateful day, the informant was at home and was busy in her domestic work and her husband (appellant herein), was also in the house and had drunk hariya, when their son - Pratap Gope (deceased), came to home and told his father that why is he drinking so much hariya, which led to an argument between them over the said issue and in the heat of moment, the appellant with a vegetable cutting knife, stabbed the deceased in his stomach causing his intestines to spill out and leading to profuse bleeding, due to which he succumbed to death on spot.

6. On the basis of the fardbeyan dated 22.11.2013 of the informant, as per whom, the date of incident was 21.11.2013, an F.I.R. being Mufassil P.S. Case No.120/2013 dated 22.11.2013 was registered under Section 302 IPC; and after investigation, charge-

sheet was filed against the appellant.

6.1. Thereafter, cognizance was taken by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chaibasa, and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions and ultimately transferred to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge-III, West Singhbhum, at Chaibasa. The case was numbered as S.T. Case No.30/2014. The Court framed charge against the appellant under Section 302 IPC and the trial proceeded.

7. To prove the prosecution case, total eight prosecution witnesses have been examined in this case, whose depositions are as follows :-

7.1. P.W.-1 namely Raghunath Sundi, is the one who had informed the Police about the incident; however, he is not an eye- witness. He deposed that as per the information given by the villagers, he rushed to the house of the appellant and saw the dead body of Pratap Gope (deceased), which bore wound on the stomach. He had signed on the inquest report and the seizure list, which were marked as Ext.-1 and Ext.-2 respectively.

In his cross-examination