MATHUR, J. - (1.) IN the we hour of 24. 2. 1997 at about quarter to 12 an unfortunate incident took place, resulting in the commission of an offence of patricide. The killer is the appellant and the victim is the deceased father Hardev. The eye witness of the incident is the unfortunate mother PW-2 Dhapu Bai. The heinous crime was committed on a trivial issue. The headstrong son gave merciless beating to his father. He was tried for the charge of murder. The learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 2, Chittorgarh by judgment dated 30. 6. 1998 convicted him of offence under Section 302 I. P. C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-; in default of payment to further undergo six months rigorous imprisonment.
(2.) BRIEFLY stated the prosecution case is that on 24. 2. 1997 PW- 7 Kastur Chand lodged an oral First Information Report Exhibit P- 11 at Police Station Parsoli stating inter alia that at about quarter to 12 while returning from village Umarthana reached near the temple of Piplad Mataji. He was attracted by the out cry of Hardev, priest of the temple of Mataji. He found that appellant Devilal was giving lathi blows on the head of his father Hardev, as a result thereof, he fell down and was fluttering. He also stated that PW-2 Dhapu Bai, wife of Hardev was also present on the spot. There was profuse bleeding from the head of Hardev. He parked the motorcycle and tried to apprehend Devilal. He ran away in the forest throwing the broken lathi. Hardev was beaten to death on the spot. Mst. Dhapu stayed back and he went to the village. He met there with PW-1 Ashok Kumar Upadhayay, PW-10 Prakash and PW-11 Satyaprakash etc. He gave them the information of the incident. On this information, police registered a case for offence under Section 302 I. P. C. and proceeded with investigation. Inquest report was prepared and dead body was sent for autopsy. The accused appellant was apprehended. After usual investigation police laid chargesheet against the accused appellant for offence under Section 302 I. P. C. The appellant denied the charges and faced trial. The prosecution in order to bring home the case against the appellant examined 14 witnesses and produced certain documents. The appellant in his statement under Section 313 Cr. P. C. denied the correctness of the prosecution evidence appearing against him. He stated that he has been falsely implicated as the family members were not interested in giving share to him in the property. The trial court found the prosecution case proved and as such convicted and sentenced the appellant in the manner noticed above. We have scanned, scrutinised and evaluated the prosecution evidence exhaustively and considered the rival contentions. The defence has not contested that the deceased Hardev died of homicidal death. This fact is otherwise proved by the medical evidence of PW-6 Dr. Goruram and the statements of PW-2 Smt. Dhapu Bai and PW-7 Kastur Chand. The entire case rests on the unimpeachable testimony of PW-2 Dhapu Bai and PW-7 Kastur Chand. Pw-2 Mst. Dhapu Bai, wife of the deceased Hardev and the mother of appellant. She has stated that her husband deceased Hardev was priest of the temple of Mataji. He used to perform seva pooja of the temple of Mataji. Her son appellant Devilal asked her husband to part with the key of temple. Some oral altercations took place between them. The out cry of Hardev attracted her. She rushed to the spot and found that Devilal was giving lathi blows on her husband Hardev. She also stated that repeated lathi blows were given by the appellant. She further stated that Pw-7 Kastur Chand who was passing through also arrived on the spot on call given by her. She asked her to take Hardev to the hospital on motorcycle. Before anything could be done. Hardev succumbed to injuries on the spot. In the cross- examination she admitted that Devilal was not doing any job and as such her deceased husband Hardev used to advise him to engage himself in some job. She denied the suggestion that the appellant was turned out from the house and he had heard abuses. Nothing has been elicited to discredit the testimony of this witness.
(3.) PW-7 Kastur Chand has stated that at about 11. 30 or 11. 45 AM while he was passing through the Piplad Temple, he heard the out cry of Mst. Dhapu Bai. On reaching the spot, he found that appellant giving repeated 5 to 7 lathi blows on the head of deceased Hardev. He parked the motorcycle and tried to apprehend Devilal. He ran away towards forest throwing the broken lathi. He also stated that lathi was broken because of severe beating given by the appellant. He also stated that Hardev died on the spot. He went to the Police Station for lodging First Information Report. He also stated that he informed the persons of village sitting on the "well". Nothing has been elicited to discredit the testimony of this witness. Pw-3 Ratanlal is the son of deceased and brother of the appellant. He has stated that on return to home, he came to know that his father Hardev was done to death by his elder brother Devilal. He stated that Devilal wanted to take keys of the temple from his father to receive the offerings at temple. Nothing has been elicited to discredit the testimony of this witness. Pw-1 Ashok Kumar, Pw-9 Anil Kumar, Pw-10 Prakash and Pw-11 Satyaprakash are witnesses who reached on the spot on receiving the information about the incident. They have stated that on hearing the news that Hardev has been killed by his son Devilal, they reached on the spot and found that Pw-2 Dhapu Bai was sitting with the dead body of her husband Hardev. Appellant was arrested vide Exhibit P-7. A lathi was also recovered vide Exhibit P-3. Cloths of the accused were also seized and sealed vide Exhibit P-6. However, it is not necessary to deal with in this regard as admittedly the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory has not been placed on record. Thus, the evidence of recovery of cloths and lathi is of no use in the absence of report of Forensic Science Laboratory. However, the ocular testimony corroborated by the prompt F. I. R. and the medical evidence proves beyond any manner of doubt that appellant committed the murder of his father Hardev. ;