- (1.) Appellants have preferred this appeal against the judgment and order of conviction dated 25.11.2002 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No.3), Varanasi in Sessions Trial No.327 of 1996, State Vs. Bachau @ Sidhnath and another, arising out of Case Crime No.239 of 1990, under Section 304 IPC, Police Station- Sigra, District- Varanasi, whereby the accused-convicts have been sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment with fine Rs.2000/- under Section 304/34 IPC, in default of payment of fine, two months' additional imprisonment.
(2.) Heard Sri Manish Tiwary, learned counsel for the appellants as well as Sri Vikas Singh, learned counsel for the informant and learned A.G.A. for the State. Factual matrix of this case is that an F.I.R. was lodged at Police Station- Sigra at 11.40 a.m. on 27.05.1990 by Baikunth Nath Gupta s/o Gauri Shanker Gupta against two accused- Bachau @ Sidhnath and Rajendra Prasad, the real brother of the informant for causing death of his wife- Meera Devi- with the allegations that on 27.05.1990 he was lying idle in his house, it was around 10.00 a.m. when his son Arun Kumar, aged about 8 years informed him that his mother is under flames and she has been put to flames by his uncles- Bachau @ Sidhnath and Rajendra Prasad and he saw them fleeing away from the spot. His mother is wriggling with pain. The informant too arrived on the roof, thereafter came to his room, took the quilt and covered his wife with the quilt. While he was preparing to start for the hospital, his wife succumbed to her injury. The dead body has been placed in the room, while the informant has came to lodge the report. Motive behind the incident was stated to be enmity on account of partition of the property, due to which the incident was caused by his brothers- Bachau @ Sidhnath and Rajendra Prasad. The contents of aforesaid information were taken down in Check FIR on 27.05.1990 at 11.40 a.m. at case crime No.239 of 1990, under Section 304 IPC, Police Station- Sigra, District Varanasi. Check FIR is Exhibit Ka-1 on record. On the basis of entry so made in Check FIR, a case was registered against the aforesaid accused persons in the General Diary, which is Exhibit Ka-9. Thereafter, the investigation ensued and the same was taken over by P.W.6 M.P. Singh, who took note of contents of the Check FIR and recorded statement of eye- witness- Arun Kumar Gupta and inspected the spot and obtained various articles- bottle, match- stick, ash- from the spot and prepared the recovery memo and proved the same as Exhibit Ka- 6. He also prepared the site map of the place of occurrence, Exhibit Ka-5 and also got recorded statement of the informant under Section 164 Cr.P.C. on 25.05.1990 before A.C.J.M. VIII, Varanasi and arrested the accused and also recorded the statement of the other family members of the informant and the accused.
(3.) Relevant to mention that after the information of death was received, the preparation of inquest commenced at 12.40 P.M. on 27.05.1990 and completed at 01:40 p.m. the same day. This inquest report is Ext. Ka-3. In the opinion of inquest witnesses, it was suggested that dead body of deceased- Meera Devi- be sent for postmortem examination, for ascertaining real cause of death. In this way, certain relevant papers were prepared for sending the dead body for postmortem examination. Thereafter, the dead body of Meera Devi was sent for autopsy, where Dr. C.V. Tripathi PW-3 conducted postmortem examination on the corpse of Meera Devi on 25.05.1990 at 3.00 p.m. Following ante-mortem injuries were found on the corpse of the deceased- Meera Devi by Dr. C.V. Tripathi PW-3, which are extracted herein below:- "Dermo Afidermaldingi burn all over body with deep burn on the stomach. The right side of the hair on the head received severe burn and smell of kerosene oil was felt." Cause of death was stated to be due to shock as a result of burn injury. Dr. C.V. Tripathi PW-6 has proved this postmortem examination report, as Exhibit Ka-2. ;