L. C. BHADOO, J. - (1.)Accused/appellant Mukesh Sahu has preferred this criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal procedure being aggrieved by the judgment of conviction and sentence dated 18-12-2000 passed by the learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Mahasamund in Sessions Trial No. 97 of 2000 by which the learned Additional Sessions Judge after holding the above accused/appellant guilty of the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code convicted him under the said Section and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000.00 in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months.
(2.)The relevant facts for the disposal of this criminal appeal are that on 22-10-1999 at about 7.30 a.m. Dilip Kumar Sahu gave Merg intimation (Ex. P-13) to Mahasamund Police Station to the effect that the dead body of his brother namely Santosh Sahu is lying in Laldaripara near the house of one Ansari Babu. There are head injuries on the body. Thereafter Dilip Sahu again at about 7.57 a.m. submitted a report (Ex. P-10) stating that there is some land between his house and the house of one Gyanendra Shukla situated in Santoshi Mandir, Subhash Nagar and some dispute is going on between them regarding the possession of that land. In July, 1999, some dispute took place between Gyanendra Shukla and his brother Santosh Sahu and regarding that some proceeding is pending in the Court of Sub Divisional Magistrate. Since then Gyanendra Shukla was continuously talking about the murder of Santosh Sahu. This fact is also known to Raja Khan and Raju Makkad. On account of this animosity, Gyanendra Shukla after conspiring with Mukesh Sahu who is a man of criminal character got murdered his brother through Mukesh Sahu and the dead body of his brother is lying near the house of Ansari Babu. On this report, First Information Report (Ex. P-12) was registered. The Station House Officer took up the investigation and went to the scene of occurrence. He prepared Panchanama (Ex. P-3) of the dead body of the deceased and vide Ex. P-28-A requested for the post mortem of the dead body and the post-mortem report (Ex. P-20) was received. The plain earth as well as the blood stained earth was recovered from the place of incident vide Ex. P-3. During the investigation and under the police custody on 22-10-1999 accused Mahesh Sahu gave a memorandum (Ex. P-5) under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act that he can get recovered the stone which he used for the murder of Santosh Sahu. At the instance of the accused at 4.40 on the same day near the scene of occurrence a stone was recovered vide Ex. P-6 which was lying under the margosa (Neem) tree. A full-shirt, full-pant, underwear, baniyan, socks and shoes of the accused were also taken into possession vide Ex. P-7. The seized stone weighing 27.70 kilograms and the clothes of the accused were sent for chemical examination vide Ex. P-21 to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Raipur and a report (Ex. P-24) was received from the Laboratory. The seized articles were sent to Calcutta for serological examination and as per the report of the serologist human blood was found on the full-shirt, full-pant, baniyan and the stone. After completing the investigation and recording the statements of the witnesses, charge-sheet was filed against the accused/appellant.
(3.)Learned Additional Sessions Judge framed the charge against the accused/appellant who denied the charge. The prosecution in order to prove the offence against the accused/appellant examined in all twenty witnesses at the trial. The statement of the accused/appellant was also recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which either he said that he does not know or denied the statements of the witnesses and said that his pant was not seized nor any stone was seized at his instance and about the injuries on his body he explained that on account of the boiling water the blister was in his body.