Ravishankar @ Baba Vishwakarma vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh

Worried, the mother herself left for her parental home at around 9-10 a.m. and informed her brother Vishram that the victim was missing. Vishram and the deceased’s mother set out on a wide search in the neighbourhoods of Chargaon with little result. Whilst returning back to Baglai, the mother identified the deceased’s salwar and one chappal on the embankment of the water-channel which divided the villages of Baglai and Chargaon. Upon reaching her matrimonial home in Baglai, the mother informed her father- in-law about her daughter’s disappearance who then approached the police. P.W.3 thereafter narrated facts of deceased’s disappearance and gave description of his grand daughter who was studying in Class 6 at that time. The Police, accordingly, registered a crime case under Section 363, IPC.

8. Subsequently the police took P.W.3 to the spot where the salwar and the chappal were recovered. Upon a local search of the area with some villagers and relatives, the semi-nude body of the deceased was discovered lying in a supine position in a dry well. The dead body was taken out of the well and it was duly identified by her grandfather, P.W.3. A spot map of the place of occurrence was drawn, and Seizure Panchnama of black colour salwar and one Chappal of the deceased was also prepared.

9. P.W.20 (Harsha Singh, Senior Scientific Officer) advised the police 5 on handling the body of the deceased and later inspected the decomposing dead body at 9:45 p.m. at the Government Hospital, Chichli. After noticing various injuries including ligature marks on the neck, she gave a report that death of the deceased was homicidal. P.W.12 (Dr. Kinshu Jaiswal) conducted postmortem of the body next morning at 9 a.m. Examining the decayed state of the body, P.W. 12 estimated time of death 48-72 hours before. She noted various injuries on the body including a ruptured hymen, congested trachea and pale lungs. Vaginal slides were prepared and sent for inspection. Hyoid bone, femur bone and three jars of the viscera (containing pieces of stomach, small intestine, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney as well as separate salt solution sample) were also sent for examination. Importantly, it was noticed that the skull and vertebrae were intact. The vaginal slides, salwar and fiber chappal of the deceased were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar (FSL, Sagar) for DNA profiling, whereas the sealed container(s) with different parts of the deceased’s body were sent to the Medico-legal Institute, Bhopal for chemical testing. Subsequently, the dead body of the deceased was handed over to the family for last rites and statements of some witnesses were recorded under Section 164 of Cr.P.C. before a Judicial Magistrate.

10. During the course of investigation, blood samples of various suspects were taken for DNA analysis. As part of the first batch, blood samples of Hargovind Kaurav, Nandi alias Anand Vanshkar and Baba alias Ashok Kaurav were taken and sent to FSL, Sagar for DNA matching on 14th 6 June, 2015. Later on 22nd June, 2015 samples of the appellant (Baba alias Ravishankar Vishwakarma), Roopram alias Ruppu Kaurav and Manoj alias Halke Yadav was similarly sent for DNA analysis. After confirmation by the FSL stating that only the DNA extracted from the appellant matched with that on the vaginal slide of the deceased, the appellant was arrested on 20th July, 2015. Charge sheets were filed against him by the investigating agency on 18th September, 2015.

12. With a view to bring home the appellant’s guilt, the prosecution examined as many as 24 witnesses, whereas none were examined by the appellant in defence. A brief summarisation of the testimonies of important witnesses and evidences has been made hereunder.

14. P.W. 2 (Shobhabai — mother of the deceased) stated in her deposition that she knew the appellant, for she had borrowed money from his family in the past. She claimed to be living in her parental home in village Chargaon, which was separated by a water channel from her matrimonial village of Baglai, since the past few months for treatment of an eye injury. She had returned to her in-laws’ house on the morning of 21 st May, 2015 with the deceased. When she reached home, the wife and daughter of the accused came and asked her to repay the borrowed money. After some time her daughter (the deceased) told her that she was going to play with her friend Priyanka at her house. The deceased came back from her friend’s house and told P.W.2 that she was not feeling good and requested that she be taken back to her maternal uncle’s house in Chargaon. At about 3.00 p.m., the witness found that her daughter was not there at their home. Her husband enquired from Priyanka’s house but came to know that deceased was not there. P.W.2, thereafter, called her son and sent him to her parental home at Chargaon about 5.00 p.m. Her son came back home and informed that the deceased was not found in Chargaon also. She again sent her son to Chargaon to look out for her properly. It was, however, confirmed that the deceased had not gone to Chargaon and she could not be found anywhere till 6.00 p.m. Thinking that the deceased might have gone to her parental aunt’s house in Aadegaon, P.W.2 and her husband slept for the night. The next morning P.W.2 got a telephonic call made to Satyaprakash’s sister in Aadegaon but failed to 8 trace the deceased there as well. A search was made on the motorcycle at the houses of various relatives and while P.W.2 was returning to Baglai from her parental home along with her nephew, Dharmendra, she spotted and identified the salwar and slipper of the deceased which were lying on the roadside on the embankment of the water channel separating Baglai from Chargaon. P.W.2 then informed her father-in-law, P.W.3, and then the matter was reported to the Police. The Police thereafter started looking for her daughter and then she got to know that the dead body of her daughter was located inside the well of one Darshan Kaurav. P.W.2 did not suspect anyone at that time. In cross-examination she admitted that she had told the police that one Abhishek alias Pillu of the village used to offer paan masala to the deceased and that police had also gone to Baba alias Ashok’s house for his interrogation and for conducting Narco test but he fled the next day from the village.

25. P.W.18 (M.D. Yadav) was posted as Assistant Sub-Inspector at police station Chichli and was the police officer who lodged the missing report on the basis of information given by P.W.3 on the afternoon of 22 nd May, 2015. He also testified to seizing the slipper and salwar presented by P.W.2.

27. P.W.21 (Krishnakant Kaurav) was posted as a Gram Rozgar Sahayak in Gram Panchayat Chargaon and testified to witnessing interrogation of the appellant, especially his disclosure of location of the missing slipper and recovery of the same.

29. P.W.23 (D.V.S. Sagar) was posted as Station House Officer at Police Station Chichli and testified to recording memorandum statement of accused in presence of P.W.15 and P.W.20, on which basis he seized the missing black fibre slipper of right leg from near the shrubs under a tree near the spot of incident in Darshan Kaurav’s field.

31. Over and above the above-mentioned oral testimonies, we may now refer to the medico-scientific evidence led by the prosecution to connect the appellant with the crime.

Another initial suspect, Baba alias Ashok Kaurav absconded during investigation, hence, gave rise to the possibility of involvment of more than one person. All these factors of course have no impact in formation of the chain of evidence and are wholly insufficient to create reasonable doubt to earn acquittal.

65.For the reasons aforesaid, the appeals are allowed in part to the extent that the death penalty as awarded by the courts below is set aside and is 16 506 U.S. 390 (1993) 31 substituted with the imprisonment for life with a direction that no remission shall be granted to the appellant and he shall remain in prison for the rest of his life.

(SURYA KANT) NEW DELHI DATED : 03.10.2019 32