K.NARAYAN,J. - (1.) BY the judgment and order dated 14.10.1978 the IV Addl. Session Judge, Meerut in S.T. No. 175 of 1978 found the accused/appellant guilty of the offence under section 302, I.P.C. and accordingly sentenced him to imprisonment for life. Aggrieved by that conviction and sentence he has come up in appeal.
(2.) THE deceased in the case Smt. Omvati was the wife of the accused. A report was lodged at 9.30 a.m. on 8.2.1978 at P.S. Binauli, District Meerut, narrating that an occurrence had taken place at unknown time in the Night of 7/8.2.1978 in village Chirachata. The report was lodged by Baljit the village Chaukidar, conveying that he was told at about 7.00 in the morning by one Ramo that Lakhmi had murdered his wife with the help of phali and that when he went to the house of Lakhmi he saw the dead body of the victim and Lakhmi sitting there, under the arrest by Ram Phool, Jasvant, Sohan son of Prabhu and Sohan son of Sidhya Narain. This report was taken down at the police station. It appears that when the Investigating Officer reached the spot i.e. house of Lakhmi around 1.00 P.M. as usual he took the blood stained and plain earth, the dibia said to have been the source of light, blood stained clothes and phali and clove with a said the last being from near the body of the deceased. The body of Smt. Omvuti was sent for postmortem examination, which seems to have been conducted by some Medical Officer, but the said report has not been proved as the medical officer was never examined. It also appears from various statements with which the witnesses have been confronted that the prosecution story has been in the form that Ramo P.W. 2 was also a partner in the agriculture with Lakhmi, the accused in the case and had gone to his house early in the morning to put fodder before the cattle, while doing so he heard the shrieks from the house and when he peeped from the window he saw that Lakhmi assaulting his wife Smt. Omvati with phali and clove. His protest which was naturally lead invited others to the place and other witnesses namely, Bhadia, Raje, Jasvant, Tek Chand, Ram Phool, Bedi, Parsadi and other arrived and they also saw the occurrence from the window. After this sustering of the wiU1esses they removed the penal of the door from its touch and went inside. Smt. Omvati by that time died and they caught hold of Lakhmi. It was stated by P. W. 2 Ramo that when questioned accused Lakhmi had conveyed that his wife nrau to object to his way of expenditure, more probably on the alcohol, hence he had beaten her. On the other hand the contention of the accused was two fold, in so far as the defence in court is concerned. The first contention was that he was a person of deficient mind or a delinquent and other defence which has been suggested to and made out the prosecution witness in cross examination was in the nature that was something very odd in the night some the accused was very much enraged against Ramo. However, in the statement of the accused himself nothing was stated about it and the statement has been almost in the nature of denial of prosecution case as suggested. The learned Sessions Judge after considering the evidence recorded the conviction and sentenced as mentioned above. A perusal of the judgment however, shows that possibly he was more guided by the brief of the case diary, rather than the statement of the witness as witness other then Ramo had not supported the prosecution story. We will, therefore, proceed to reconsider the entire evidence.
(3.) P .W. 1 Baljit, the village Choukidar had simply lodged the First Information Report. His evidence otherwise is not material, but it gains weight in respect of certain omissions in the conduct of P.W. 2 Ramo in not informing him about any part of the occurrence before he went to the police station. We will take them up in detail below.;