Raghunandan vs State Of Madhya Pradesh

2. The case of the prosecution was that in the morning of May 6, 1990, Manfer (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) was in his house. The appellant (original accused No.2) came to the house of the deceased and asked him that one Sakkhu (original accused No.1) was calling him. The deceased went with the appellant. Till afternoon, the deceased did not come back from the house of the appellant for taking meal. Buddhsen-PW1, son of the deceased, hence, went to the house of the appellant for calling his father. There he saw that the appellant had mounted on the chest of the deceased and Sakkhu had chopped off the neck of the deceased. Manfer died on account of assault perpetrated on him and cutting of the neck. Buddhsen raised alarm and the accused persons fled away from the place. PW2-Faguni, wife of Manfer came in search of Manfer to the house of the appellant where she found her husband lying dead. Dadua-PW3, another son of Manfer also reached there. Other persons assembled at the place of occurrence and witnessed dead body of Manfer lying in the house of the appellant with injury on his neck present. It was also the case of the prosecution that before committing murder of Manfer, accused persons had caused Manfer to consume liquor. The motive, according to the prosecution, was that Manfer had not got married his son Dadua-PW3 with the daughter of the appellant. The appellant, therefore, had animosity against Manfer due to which he, alongwith Sakkhu, caused murder of Manfer.

3. PW1-Buddhsen lodged First Information Report (FIR) (Ex.P-1) of the incident at Sidhi Police Station. A.K. Dwivedi-PW6, Town Inspector, Kotwali, Sidhi, conducted investigation, visited the place of occurrence, prepared inquest panchnama of dead body of Manfer and seized plain as well as bloodstained earth from the place in the house of the appellant. He also seized two empty bottles of liquor and a glass. Dead body of Manfer was then sent through PW5-Constable Rajkumar Singh to hospital, Sidhi. PW7-Dr. H.P. Singh conducted the postmortem examination of the dead body and gave his report (Ex.P-12). Viscera of Manfer was also collected and sealed. Dhoti and Baniyan were taken off from the dead body of Manfer and were sealed and sent to the Police Station. The said articles were forwarded for chemical examination. Both the accused were then arrested on May 8, 1990. At the behest of Sakkhu, a knife said to have been used for commission of the crime was recovered. Seized clothes, viscera, bloodstained and plain earth, bottles and glass and knife were sent for examination to Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar. After completion of investigation, challan was filed against the accused. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sidhi committed the case to the Sessions Court for trial.

4. The accused were charged for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. Both the accused, however, denied their guilt and claimed to be tried. According to them, they were falsely implicated in the case. The appellant herein denied the fact that he had taken Manfer to his house. Accused Sakkhu asserted that having learnt about the incident, he went along with PW1-Buddhsen to lodge a report at the police station. He stated that he was watchman at jungle and did not allow Buddhsen and others to pasture their cattle in jungle. Due to that animosity, he was falsely involved in the case. According to him, he was not present in the house of the appellant and he had gone to seek his calf and subsequently he learnt about the death of Manfer. No defence witness was examined by the accused persons.

Dadua, both the sons of the deceased and PW2- Faguni, widow of the deceased.

12. If, on the basis of all these facts, both the Courts have come to the conclusion that it was the appellant who had caused death of Manfer at his residence, in our opinion, it cannot be said that by taking such view, any error was committed by them. We see no infirmity in the order passed by the trial Court and confirmed by the High Court.

13. For the foregoing reasons, we see no substance in this appeal filed by the appellant. We hold that the order of conviction and sentence recorded by the Sessions Court and confirmed by the High Court is legal and proper. The appeal deserves to be dismissed and is accordingly dismissed.