- (1.)Present appeal arises out of judgment and order rendered by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Amreli on 25.10.2002 in Sessions Case No.8 of 2000, convicting the appellant-accused for the offence of murder of Manishaben Babubhai Kotiya under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC' for short) and sentencing him to imprisonment for life and under Section 394 of the IPC and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years. The sentences imposed upon the appellant-accused are to run consecutively.
(2.)The prosecution case, briefly, stated, was that on 10.07.1999 at about 11:30 hrs. Manishaben Babubhai Kotiya, (since deceased), while she was proceedings towards her field to deliver food for her brother and other family members, where they had gone for agricultural work, the present appellant-accused (the accused), with an intention to commit murder and robbery, assaulted the deceased with a knife and inflicted blows in haphazard manner upon her chest and other parts of the body and after doing so the accused took away the golden chain and the golden amulet, which was round her neck tied in a black thread. That as it had started raining, brother of the deceased, along with his another sister-Tejal and mother-Nabuben, returned back at about 12 noon and when they reached the place called 'khokhari na dhore' they found the deceased lying unconscious with injuries. That they could notice that the deceased being assaulted with knife and had noticed 4-5 blows. At that moment they also found that the deceased was alive and, therefore, all three took the deceased in a bullock cart to their home. That thereafter they called 4-5 elders from the village and when they checked the deceased, she was dead. It was also found that the golden chain and the golden amulet round her neck tied in a black thread were missing from the body of the deceased.
(3.)Pursuant to the aforesaid offence, an F.I.R. came to be lodged by brother of the deceased, Ghanshyam (PW-2) before Chalala Police Station. After full-fledged investigation and collecting necessary evidence charge-sheet was submitted before learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Dhari, who, in turn, committed the case to the court of Sessions as the case was being exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions and the same was registered as Sessions Case No.8 of 2000.