- (1.) APPELLANT -Prem Puran stood trial for committing murder of Sukra Puran. The court having found the appellant guilty convicted him for the offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code vide judgment dated 29.7.2005 passed in ST. No. 220 of 2002 and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life vide order dated 1.8.2005. The case of the prosecution is that Sukra Puran, father of the informant Chaitnya Puran -P.W. 5 and Giridhar Puran, had planted tomato saplings in his backyard a few days before on account of which there had been an altercation with this appellant, residing in the neighbourhood. On the day of occurrence i.e. on 30.10.2001 at 5 am while the deceased -Sukra Puran was fencing the said piece of land on which saplings of tomato had been planted, informant -Chaitnya Puran -P.W. 5 and his brother Giridhari Puran -P.W. 2, who were in the house, heard distress sound of his father coming from the backyard. On hearing, both of them rushed to the backyard of the house where they saw this appellant assaulting their father over the back portion of his head and neck with 'farsa'. When they ran to save their father, the appellant fled away from there. They found their father dead whose back portion of head was cut and a lot of blood had been spilled over there. Informant -Chaitnya Puran -P.W. 5 along with his brother -Giridhar Puran went to the Bundu Police Station and informed about it. Thereupon, V.K. Singh, Officer Incharge of Bundu Police Station came to the village where he recorded the fardbeyan (Ext. -3) of the informant at 5.45 am wherein the informant narrated about the incident, as has been stated above. On the basis of such fardbeyan, an FIR was lodged and the matter was taken up for investigation during which the Investigating Officer held inquest on the dead body of the deceased and prepared an inquest report (Ext. -1) and sent the dead body for post mortem examination which was conducted by Dr. Ram Sevak Sahu -P.W. 7 who upon holding autopsy on the dead body of the deceased found the following injuries: - - - "Incised wound i. 2 x 4 cm x bone deep on left side of head lower part starting from the left cheek prominence to left occipital region of head across the left pinna cutting the underlying bone and brain matter. A portion of brain matter had drained out. On inspection of the wound one tissue tag was found projecting from a posterior end of the wound indicating the minimum of two blows and there is presence of blood and blood clot in the cranial cavity. ii. 8 x 1 cm x soft issue left postero lateral neck upper part. iii. 3x1 cm x bone deep left elbow back cutting the underlying bone partially. iv. 3 x 1 cm x soft issue left wrist back. v. 6 x 1 cm x soft issue right forearm back. vi. 7 x 1/2 cm x soft issue on right hand and back. vii. 9 x 1 cm x bone deep on left fronto parietal region of head with chipping of underlying bone."
(2.) THE doctor issued post mortem examination report (Ext. -4) with an opinion that the death was caused due to above -mentioned injuries caused by heavy sharp cutting weapon like 'farsa'. Time elapsed since death was found to be in between 6 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, the Investigating Officer also recorded the statements of the witnesses. On completion of the investigation, when the Investigating Officer submitted charge -sheet against the appellant, cognizance of the offence was taken and in due course when the case was committed to the Court of Sessions, the appellant was put on trial.
(3.) DURING trial, the prosecution in order to prove its case examined altogether 7 witnesses. Of them, P.W. 2 -Giridhar Puran and P.W. 5 -Chaitnya Puran -inform -ant did testify that while they were in the house, they heard distress sound of their father coming from the backyard upon which when they went there, they found the appellant cutting the neck and head of their father. As soon as they reached at the place of occurrence, the appellant fled away from there. Meanwhile, P.W. 1 -Rukmini Kumari -daughter of the deceased also reached and saw the appellant fleeing from there. P.W. 3 -Subhash Adhikari and P.W.6 -Mahavir Yadav are the witnesses to the inquest.;