Deciding Authority: Supreme Court of India
Name of the Judges: Justice Dr. Mukundakam Sharma, Justice C.K. Prasad
Date of Judgment: 30 March 2010
Facts of the Case: This appeal is directed against the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the trial Court and affirmed by the High Court. The appellant, being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed against him directing him to suffer imprisonment for life, preferred this appeal in which the Court heard the learned counsel appearing for the parties.
Judgment: In order to appreciate the rival contentions of the parties, the Court perused the evidence adduced in the case by the prosecution witnesses. The First Information Report was filed by PW-1, the informant, who had also stated about the extra- judicial confession made by the appellant herein. The said extra-judicial confession was made in the presence of a number of villagers, some of whom have been examined and they have corroborated each other on all material particulars. There was another very vital factor which corroborates the extra-judicial confession made by the appellant and that is the theory of the last seen together. It has been established in evidence by the prosecution witnesses that in that particular house and on the particular date and material time only the deceased and the accused were present as the other occupants of the house had gone to witness some singing programme. Since both the accused and deceased were present in the said house all alone and since the deceased was found dead immediately upon return of the other occupants of the house, it was the accused who was to give an explanation as to how the deceased had died. He has failed to explain the circumstances in his statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He failed to explain the manner in which the deceased had died. The deceased was found with marks of strangulation. The extra-judicial confession made by the appellant to the prosecution witnesses corroborated the case of the prosecution. So far as the motive behind the murder is concerned, the same was also established by the very fact that the deceased who was the mother in law of accused was always fighting with the daughter of the accused and, therefore, that was the reason for which the murder was committed.
Decision: In this view of the matter, the Court did not find merit in this appeal. The same was dismissed. Fees of the Amicus was fixed at Rs. 5,000/-
By: Roopali Mohan, 2nd Year, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi
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