Khim Singh vs State Of Uttrakhand

2. Brief facts, giving rise to the present appeal as emerging from the material on record, are that the accused Khim Singh was residing with his wife Himuli Devi in his residential house at village Simgari. He has a son, named Mohan Singh, who was also residing with them, but sometimes, he resided with his grandmother, who resides in the adjacent house of Laccham Singh, brother of accused-Khim singh. Earlier accused-Khim Singh was in service outside his village, but for the last 4-5 years he had come back and was working as labourer. His wife, Himuli Devi, was a short- tempered woman and she often quarrelled with Khim Singh. It was suspected in the village that she was a woman of loose character and on account of this, accused-Khim Singh was also not in good terms with her. Often they used to be quarrelled with each other. On 17th July, 1987, also in the evening, they had a quarrel. Early in the morning of 18th July, 1987, one Bahadur Singh (since deceased), a resident of the village, while passing in front of the house of the accused-Khim Singh found that the door was closed and there was none outside. He opened the door and went inside the house and found Himuli Devi lying dead. He raised an alarm, on which, the mother of the accused also came there. He called the Sabhapati of the village, Bachi Singh also. They all saw that Himuli Devi was lying inside the room, having injuries on her body and she was dead.

3. The Sabhapati of the village, Bachi Singh, prepared a written report, Ext.Ka-1. It was sent to the Patwari of the Kshetra through one Kishan Singh. In the said report, Sabhapati mentioned that it was accused-Khim Singh who killed his wife Himuli Devi and requested the Patwari to come and investigate the matter. The written report was received by the Patwari, Narain Singh, at 11.30 a.m. on 18th July, 1987 and on that basis he prepared the FIR, Ext.Ka-3. He came to the house of Bachi Singh and recorded his statement. Accompanied by Bachi Singh, he went to the house of the accused, where Himuli Devi was found lying dead inside the house. The dead body was taken into custody and the inquest report, Ext.Ka-4, was prepared and the dead body was sealed. The letter with a request for postmortem, Ext.Ka-5, was also prepared. The blood stained clothes were taken into custody from the dead body and Fard, Ext.Ka-6 was prepared. From the place where the dead body was lying, blood stained and plain earth were also taken and sealed and a Fard, Ext.Ka-7, was prepared. The scene of occurrence was also reflected in site plan Ext.Ka-8. The accused-Khim Singh, who was present there, was arrested and a Fard, Ext.Ka-9, was prepared. At the instance of the accused, a blood-stained Kulhari (axe) was found inside the house and a Fard, Ext.Ka-2, was prepared. The sealed articles were handed over to the peon and Fard, Ext.Ka-10 was prepared. The statements of Manuli Devi (PW-1) and Khimuli Devi (PW-2) were recorded. In between 19th and 22th July, 1987 the statements of other witnesses, including Joga Singh (PW-5) were recorded. The sealed articles were sent for chemical examination. The investigation was completed and the chargesheet dated 22nd August, 1988, Ext.Ka-14, was submitted against the accused.

Semi digested food material was coming out from the mouth.”

6. The Patwari-Simgari, after completing necessary formalities, submitted a charge sheet dated 22nd August, 1987, against the accused, Ext.Ka-14, to the Court of CJM, Almora. Since the offence was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed to the Sessions Judge, Almora for trial of the accused. The Sessions Judge charged the accused under Section 302 IPC, who pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed to be tried.

9. In this case, there was no eye-witness of the occurrence. The case was based on the circumstantial evidence. Manuli Devi (PW-1), the mother of the accused in her testimony, stated that there was quarrel between the accused and his wife, Himuli Devi,in the evening of 17th July, 1987, on the festival of Harela. On the next morning, i.e. 18th July, 1987, one Bahadur Singh found the door of the house of the accused closed and when he pushed the door, he found Himuli Devi lying dead inside the house. Bahadur Singh called Bachi Singh (PW-4), the Sabhapati. Thereafter, the Patwari also came on the spot. However, she stated that after the dispute between accused- Khim Singh and Himuli Devi she had not seen accused-Khim Singh and she was declared hostile. However, she admitted that in the house only Khim Singh and his wife were living. His son Mohan Singh was living with her. Khimuli Devi (PW-2), is the wife of Lachham Singh, brother of the accused, sister- in-law of the deceased Himuli Devi (gotani). According to her, she did not know whether any quarrel took place between the accused and the deceased. She had gone to her field on the day of Harela festival. The next morning also, she had gone to the field, but when she came back, she saw Himuli Devi lying dead. Mohan Singh (PW-3), is the minor son of the accused. He stated that he was inside the house of his grandmother and he did not know as to what happened in the house of his father.

26. The above narration of chain of circumstantial evidence relied upon by the prosecution in the present case lead to the inference that the accused is guilty for the offence of murder of Himuli Devi as all the circumstances taken together lead to only hypothesis of the guilt of the accused-appellant. The chain of circumstantial evidence relied upon by the prosecution is complete to hold the accused guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. We hold that the accused-appellant Khim Singh was rightly convicted and sentenced under Section 302 IPC for life imprisonment by the learned Sessions Judge as affirmed by the High Court.

27. As a result, the appeal preferred by the accused-appellant has no force and the same is liable to be dismissed. The appeal is, accordingly, dismissed. The impugned judgment under appeal is upheld. We appreciate the endeavour made by the learned amicus curiae, Mr. Feroze Ahmed in assisting the Court in the matter and direct to pay a sum of Rs.7,000/- as fee to the amicus curiae.

Date :08/07/2014 This appeal was called on for judgment today.

For Appellant(s) Mr. Feroz Ahmed (A.C.) For Respondent(s) Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, Adv.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya pronounced the judgment of the Bench comprising His Lordship and Hon'ble Mr. Justice V. Gopala Gowda.

The appeal is dismissed in terms of the signed judgment.