- (1.)The accused-appellant has been held guilty of offences punishable under section 302 read with section 34 of the IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life by the sessions court, Seondha, district datia. The conviction and sentence have been maintained in appeal. There were three accused persons, namely Govind @ Bachudi, Sobaran and Radhakrishan, who is appellant before us. Govind and sobaran have died in police encounter during the pendency of trial. The trial then proceeded against Radhakrishan, the accused-appellant only.
(2.)The deceased Rajaram was resident of village Indergarh. He was related as son-in-law to Ram Kali. PW-4. Kilol singh, PW-1 is the son of Ram Kali. According to the prosecution, there was another brother of the three accused persons, who is said to have been killed in a police encounter and the accused persons suspected that Rajaram was instrumental in the death of their brother. On 29.10. 1996 at about 10. 00 a. m. , Kilol Singh, PW-1 and Ram Kali, pw-4 were on their field, which is situated on the way which leads from indergarh to Pachokhara. Kilol Singh was making channels for irrigating the crop standing in his field. Ram Kali was collecting small branches of trees for use as fire wood. At this point of time they saw the three accused persons forcibly dragging Rajaram on the way. They were coming from the side of indergarh and moving towards pachokhara. A towel was tied around the neck of Rajaram and held by the accused persons. The three accused were armed with country made pistols. When these persons reached near the field of Ram Kali and Kilol Smgh, rajaram asked for water. The accused persons prevented Ram Kali from giving water to Rajaram The accused persons sarcastically told Rajaram that one-time-water would be available to him a little afterwards. Thereafter the accused persons took away Rajaram having seen Rajaram being so taken away Kilol Singh, PW-1 rushed to the village and contacted Munni Patel, who accompanied him to the police station where FIR of the incident was lodged at 10. 30 a. m The police swung into action and set out in the search of rajaram However, it was at about 10. 00 p. m. when dead body of Rajaram was found in the outskirts of village indergarh at the place which is known as Pachokhara. The dead body had multiple injuries on its person. It was removed to the hospital. Postmortem was conducted by Dr. N. R. Jatav, pw-8. The following injuries were found on the dead body of Rajaram:
1 Ligature mark 2 5 cm in width well defined and slightly depressed situated low down on his neck below the thyroid cartilage. Little lacerated of muscle on adjacent to the mark of lecture was present

2 Bruise 5 cm x 2 cm on the exterior surface at the lower 1/2 of the right forearm of radius ulna region present

3 Contusion 4 cm x 2 cm on the right zefgomatic region

4 One stab 1/2 cm x 1/2 cm x 3 cm on the left side of upper side of the right arm

5 One stab 1/2 cm x 1/2 cm x 4 cm on the upper part of the lateral side of left arm

6 One stab wound cm 1/2 x 1/2 cm x 3 cm lower part of lateral side of left arm

7 One stab wound 1/2 cm x 1/2 cm x 4 cm on the posterior side of the upper part of right thigh

8 One abrasion 3 cm x 1/2 cm on the middle of the forehead

(3.)All these injuries were ante-mortem in nature. In the opinion of Dr Jatav, the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation The postmortem was performed by Dr. Jatav in the presence of dr. A. K. Upadhyay