G.N. Ray, J. - (1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment dated February 6, 1985 passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Criminal Appeal No. 279 of 1981 affirming conviction and sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Shajapur, in Sessions Trial No. 28 of 1981. By the aforesaid judgment dated September 24, 1981, the learned Sessions Judge, Shajapur, convicted the accused/appellant Vijay under Section 302, I.P.C. for murdering his wife Komal Bai and sentencing him to imprisonment for life for the said offence and also convicting him under S. 309, I.P.C. for attempting to commit suicide and sentencing the accused/ appellant rigorous imprisonment for one year by directing that both the sentences would run concurrently.
(2.) The prosecution case in short is that the appellant murdered his wife Komal Bai aged 29 years at about 11.00p.m. on November 11, 1980, by causing knife injuries on the neck and the chest of his wife. Such act of murder was committed in a room in the upper storey of the appellants home at Agar, Shajapur. The appellant along with his family members consisting of the deceased-wife, minor son, Chetan aged 9 years and infant daughter Kumari Seni, used to reside at the said home with his father, Basantilal. At about 11.00 p.m. on November 11, 1980, the brother of the appellant called Dr. Chandra and informed him that his sister-in-law Komal Bai had been bleeding from the neck. Dr. Sharma (PW 1) on reaching the residence of Basantilal found that in a room in the upper storey the said Komal Bai was lying dead with a bleeding injury on her neck. Letter dated October 11, 1980 purporting to be written by the appellant holding himself responsible for the murder of his wife and for his suicide was also found lying there. The police was informed by Dr. Sharma about the said incident who rushed to the spot. On the arrival of the police, Dr. Sharma scribed the Dehati Nalishi (Ex. P/3) and handed it over to Mokamsingh Nain (PW 26) the Station House Officer, Agar. The crime under Secs. 302 and 309, I.P.C. was registered at about 12.30 a.m. on the same night and investigation was started. The appellant who was admitted in the Agar hospital and examined at 12.17 a.m. on November 12, 1980 by Dr. Sharma (PW 1) who found a ligature remark around the neck of the appellant and it was noted by the doctor that such a ligature mark had been caused within three hours of the examination. From the investigation it was revealed that the minor son of the appellant, Chetan (PW 4, was sleeping in the room where the said incident of murder had taken place. Chetan woke up and saw that his mother was lying on the floor with a bleeding injury on her neck and the appellant was there in the room. Chetan thereafter unbolted the door, went down and informed his grandfather Basantilal. When Basantilal reached the place of occurrence, he found that said Komal Bai was lying injured and the appellant was hanging with a rope tied around his neck. Basantilal with the help of the knife lying in the room cut the rope and removed it from the appellants neck. Komal Bais dead body was sent for post mortem examination and Dr. Satish Jain (PW 24) on November 12, 1980 at 9.30 a.m. conducted the post mortem, and the said doctor found one ante mortem incised wound on the right side of the neck and another on the left side of the chest. According to the doctor, injury No. 1 on the neck was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause the death of Komal Bai. The post mortem report is Ex. P/54. It transpired from the investigation that the appellant was in difficult financial circumstances and was indebted to several persons. It also transpired that the appellant had earlier contacted PW 17 Charikhan to ascertain from him as to how the licence for a pistol could be obtained. It may be stated that PW 9 Chironjilal Kushwah after disclosing his identity as Naib Tehsildar, Agar, asked the appellant to prepare copies of the letters stated to have been written by him and the appellant agreed to make such copies and the contents of letters being dictated he wrote the same. Such writing was sent to the Additional State Examiner of Questioned documents, Navinchandra Deshpande (PW 36) for comparison with the specimen writing of the appellant and on comparison, the said State Examiner had found that the specimen writing and the admitted writing were by the same hand. The learned Sessions Judge after considering the evidence adduced in the case inter alia came to the finding that the appellant had murdered his wife Komal Bai by causing the injury on the neck and thereafter he attempted to commit suicide by hanging. Accordingly, he convicted the appellant under S. 302 and also under S. 309, I.P.C. and passed the aforesaid sentences.
(3.) It may be noted in this connection that the appellant denied his complicity in murdering his wife and the appellants case (supra) was that he had gone out of the room where his wife and the son and daughter were sleeping and when he came back he found that the wife was lying seriously injured and had been bleeding profusely. After seeing that there was very little chance of her surviving, he became remorsed and wanted to end his life by hanging. It may also be noted here that before the learned Sessions Judge on behalf of the appellant, it was contended that his writings which were obtained by the Naib Tehsildar for comparison should not be taken into consideration because procurement of writing was contrary to S. 73 of the Evidence Act. Such contention, however, was not accepted by the learned Sessions Judge.;