IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE JUSTICE SUJOY PAUL &

JUSTICE VIVEK JAIN CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1864 of 2013 BETWEEN:-

1. SONU SAXENA S/O OMPRAKASH SAXENEA, AGED ABOUT 23 YEARS, VILL BAIRSIA TAH BAIRSIA, DISTRICT BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH)

2. BANARSI BAI W/O LATE DHANVIR SINGH , AGED ABOUT 27 YEARS, OCCUPATION: HOUSE WIFE VILL. MEGIPURA WARD NO. 1 BAIRSIA TEH.

BAIRSIA, BHOPAL. (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....APPELLANTS (BY SHRI HAKIM KHAN - ADVOCATE FOR THE APPELLANT NO.1 AND SHRI RUSTAM KHAN - ADVOCATE FOR THE RESPONDENT NO.2)

AND THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH THR P.S. BAIRSIA BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....RESPONDENT (BY SHRI A.N. GUPTA - GOVERNMENT ADVOCATE)

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Reserved on : 05/02/2024 Pronounced on : 13/02/2024 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This appeal having been heard and reserved for judgment/order, coming on for pronouncement this day, Shri Justice Vivek Jain passed the following:-

J U D G M E N T

The present appeal has been filed under Section 374(2) of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1974 arising out of judgment of conviction and sentence dated 28.06.2013 passed by 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Bhopal in Sessions Signature Not Verified Signed by: RAJESH KUMAR Trial No.721/2012, whereby the appellants have been found guilty for committing offences punishable under Sections 302 in alternate read with Section 302/34 and 201 of the I.P.C. and sentenced to Life Imprisonment with fine of Rs.1,000/- each and R.I. for 7 years with fine of Rs.500/- each respectively, with default stipulations.

2. In short, the case of the prosecution is that the incident occurred in the early hours of 04.08.2012. Initially, FIR (Exhibit P-15) was lodged at 2.40 am on 04.08.2012 by the present appellant No.2 – Banarsi Bai and it was alleged in the FIR that the deceased Dharamveer who was husband of appellant No.2 has gone at around 12.30 am in the night to recover some amounts, which were outstanding against some persons. He came back after around one hour and 15 minutes and was lying on the bed and was watching Television. After about 10 minutes, 4 unidentified assailants entered the house and assaulted the deceased. Two of the assailants were carrying some iron rod type object, which was used to hit the deceased in the head and body. The other two assailants are stated to have strangulated the deceased by a rope used as a clothesline. These assailants were also alleged to have taken away some ornaments from the appellant No.2 Banarsi Bai. Her 12 years old son Ravi (PW-1) was stated to be awake at that time and had witnessed the incident.

3. Upon investigation, it was found that the appellant No.2 was having some extra-marital relation with the appellant No.1 and the appellant No.1 and appellant No.2 have caused homicidal death of the deceased Dharamveer. 4. The postmortem of the dead body was conducted on 04.08.2012 (Exhibit P-12). Merg intimation (Exhibit P-14) was recorded on 04.08.2012 at 2.45 am at the instance of appellant No.2 – Banarsi Bai containing the story on similar lines as contained in First Information Report (Exhibit P-15).

Signature Not Verified Signed by: RAJESH KUMAR

5 . The statements under Section 161 Cr.P.C. of Ravi (PW-1) were recorded on 05.08.2012, who revealed that his mother, i.e. appellant No.2 was having extra marital affair with appellant No.1 and that appellant No.2 and appellant No.1 have assaulted and murdered the deceased. His statements under Section 164 Cr.P.C. were recorded, which are also on similar lines. After such statements of Ravi (PW-1) during the course of investigation, on 05.08.2012 and his statement under Section 164 of Cr.P.C. on 07.08.2012, the present appellants were arraigned as accused persons.

6. The spot map (Exhibit P-2) was prepared by Kishore Singh Dangi (PW-2), the memorandum of appellant No.2 (Exhibit P-3) and memorandum of appellant No