IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH SHIMLA Cr. Appeal No. 387 of 2006. Judgment reserved on 29th October, 2009. Date of decision: 4th November, 2009. Budhi Devi .. Appellant. Versus State of Himachal Pradesh .. Respondent. Coram: The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Surjit Singh, J. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Surinder Singh, J. Whether approved for reporting ? For the Appellant: Mr. Ramakant Sharma, Advocate. For the Respondent : Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Assistant Advocate General. Surinder Singh, J. The appellant has challenged her conviction, passed by the learned trial Court, vide its judgment dated 30th October, 2006, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, for causing the murder of Shri Amar Singh (25), whereby she was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default of payment of fine to further undergo imprisonment for a period of one year. ____________________________________________________ Whether the reporters of Local Papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? Yes. - 2 - In short, the prosecution case can be stated thus. On 14th January, 2005, Amar Singh (deceased) visited the house of PW-2 Room Singh in village Sharan-Aage and requested him to accompany him to his house. After seeking the permission from his father, Room Singh (18) accompanied Amar Singh. On the way, they came across the house of appellant Budhi Devi. At that time, she was sitting in the verandah of her house. It was the day of “Maghi Sankranti”. Appellant asked them as to why Amar Singh was not offering ‘Joob’1. On this, Amar Singh approached Budhi Devi followed by PW-2 Room Singh to offer ‘Joob’ to her. As soon as Amar Singh entered her verandah opposite her kitchen she dealt a blow on the head with small axe, which she was holding in her hand. Consequently, he fell down. Seeing this, Room Singh ran away from the spot and informed mother of the deceased PW-4 Aila Dassi, about the said incident. She alongwith Room Singh came to the scene of occurrence. They saw the dead body lying in the verandah in the pool of blood with injuries on the head. Thereafter Aila Dassi came back and made a telephonic call to her son-in-law PW-1 Hem Raj and asked him to reach her house. Immediately Hem 1 ‘Joob’ is a customary weed which is generally offered during religious festivals or an auspicious day to each other in the village community in some of the areas of Himachal Pradesh including Kullu. - 3 - Raj alongwith his wife visited village Sharan-Aage. Aila Dassi narrated the entire incident to him. She took him to the spot. PW-1 Hem Raj tried to contact Pradhan, but he could not locate him. Thereafter he went to the Ward Panch and took him along to the Police Station and lodged the FIR Ext.PA. The police party headed by PW-11 Inspector/ SHO Badri Singh visited the spot, took the photographs of the body and prepared the site plan. The police collected the vomittance and the blood of the deceased and sealed in the separate vials. The inquest report was prepared. The police searched for the appellant. She was found sitting with the axe (Ext.P-1) in a corner of her cowshed in the ground floor of her house. The axe was blood-stained.PW-2 Room Singh identified the appellant and the axe. It was taken into possession in the presence of the witnesses. The appellant was arrested. The dead body was sent for autopsy to Zonal Hospital, Kullu. On the examination of the dead body, PW-6 Dr. Sumedh Kaul noticed bleeding nostrils and there were ante-mortem multiple incised wounds over left temporal, parietal and occipital region of scalp. Fragment of bone pieces and brain matter were also around it. There were multiple incised wounds over left side of face on parietal frontal and temporal and occipital region mostly extending - 4 - 2.5cm x 1cm in size. One wound was 5cm x 2 cm in size which was on occipital region. Underlying bone was fractured and brain matter was also exposed. In the opinion of the doctor, the deceased had died as a result of multiple injuries over scalp and skull leading to exposure of brain-matter and haemorrhagic shock which resulted into instantaneous death. The blood sample was taken by the doctor and handed over to the police. The details of the injuries were mentioned in post- mortem report Ext.PJ. The doctor opined that the aforesaid injuries could be caused with the axe Ex.P-1. The appellant was also got medically examined. Her wearing apparels were blood stained. The sample of the blood found on the foot of the appellant was also taken into possession and sent for the forensic examination alongwith her clothes. On the receipt of the forensic reports and after completing the investigation, the Challan was presented in the Court for the trial of the appellant. The appellant was charge-sheeted for committing the offence of murder to which she pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. To prove its case the prosecution examined the sole eye witness PW-2 Room Singh and to corroborate his version, the mother of the deceased PW-4, Aila Dassi and PW-3 Tikam Ram, who accompanied PW-1 to lodge the - 5 - FIR in the Police Station. PW-1 Hem Raj complainant was also examined, besides examining Dr. Sumedh Kaul, who conducted the autopsy, and also the Investigating Officer. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and reappraised the evidence on record. PW-2 Room Singh, the sole eye witness of the alleged incident, has corroborated the prosecution version in its material particulars. He categorically stated that when he alongwith Amar Singh reached near the house of appellant Budhi Devi around 9.00 p.m., she was found sitting in the verandah of her house. She asked him as well as the deceased as to why they did not offer the ‘Joob’ to her. Thereafter Amar Singh deceased went to the appellant to offer the ‘Joob’ and he (PW-2) followed him. As soon as deceased entered the verandah of her house, the appellant dealt an axe blow on the head of the deceased. Out of fear he (PW-2) ran away from the spot and went to the mother of the deceased PW-4 Aila Dassi and narrated the entire incident and took her to the spot. PW-4 Aila Dassi has corroborated his version. She stated that immediately on having been informed about the alleged incident, she ran to the spot alongwith Room Singh (PW-2) and found that her son was lying dead with bleeding injuries on his head. The blood was found scattered on the verandah. Then she returned to the house - 6 - and informed PW-1 Hem Raj, her son-in-law about the incident. Hem Raj reached her house and all of them went to the spot and then the matter was reported to the police. PW-1 Hem Raj also lent corroboration to her version. According to him, on the information supplied to him by his mother-in-law, he narrated the entire incident to the police, which was reduced into writing (Ext.PA). He had also visited the spot. At that time, the dead body of the deceased was lying in a pool of blood in the verandah of the appellant. On examining the statements of the aforesaid witnesses closely and with caution, we do not find anything which can impel us to hold that the version given by the aforesaid witnesses is untrue or in any way could cause dent in the prosecution case thereby making the prosecution story a suspect. Although, the witnesses were cross-examined in detail, but neither anything material could be extracted to disbelieve the prosecution case nor any specific defence was put to them. The case of the appellant in her statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is denial simplictor. PW-11, Inspector Badri Singh, the Investigating Officer stated that on reaching the spot and after inspecting the place of incident, the search was made for the appellant. She was found sitting with blood stained axe - 7 - Ext.P-1 in the corner of her cowshed. She was identified by Room Singh, thus arrested and the axe was taken into possession vide recovery memo Ext.PE. Its sketch map Ext.PD was taken on a piece of paper which has a blade of 7 cm width and 13½ cm length with wooden handle of 47 cm, in the presence of PW-3 Tikam Ram and PW-1 Hem Raj, which was identified by Room Singh. The doctor has also noticed as many as more than one injury on the head of the deceased, which according to him could be caused by axe Ext.P-1. Thus on the critical examination of the aforesaid evidence, we do not find anything to doubt the testimony of the aforesaid witnesses and more particularly, the alleged eye witness PW-2 Room Singh, which is otherwise worth inspiring confidence. The minor contradictions and discrepancies with respect to time of informing PW-1 Hem Raj telephonically by PW-4 Aila Dassi and his arrival on the spot are of no consequence, more particularly, when the statement of the aforesaid eye witness is found to be true and nothing was brought on record to doubt his version, rather his testimony is materially corroborated by other evidence on record. The appellant has also not offered any explanation to the circumstances put to her and also about the dead body of Amar Singh having been found in the verandah of her house in front of kitchen with a splash of blood. - 8 - For the aforesaid reasons, we do not find any infirmity in the impugned judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the learned trial Court. The appeal is devoid of any merit and is accordingly dismissed. ( Surjit Singh ), J. 4th November, 2009. ( Surinder Singh ), J. (rc)