- (1.) The appellants challenge their conviction and sentence in this appeal. They were tried under Section 302 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 201 of the Indian Penal Code by the Sessions Judge and finding them guilty, as charged, each one of them was sentenced to imprisonment for life under Section 302 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code. No separate sentence was awarded under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code by the Sessions Judge.
(2.) The case of the prosecution is as follows: The deceased Geeta Devi was the sister of Raj Kumar Choudhary. Before her marriage, she was living alongwith her brother at Amarpur village. After the marriage, the deceased was living with the 2nd appellant in the village Murgiachak and the 1st appellant is the father of the 2nd appellant. The deceased was complaining to PW-9 that the 2nd appellant and his family members are not treating her properly. She always used to complain about the conduct of the 2nd appellant, whenever PW-9 used to visit his sister. On 27.11.1994, when PW-9 was harvesting paddy crop, he was informed by Shaligram Mandal and Umesh Thakur that they have heard about the death of Geeta Devi. On getting the said information from the above two, PW-9 went to the village where his sister was living with her husband. He found Bisu Mandal and his parents. PW-9 questioned them as to the whereabouts of his sister, Geeta Devi, as she was not found in the house. They could not given any information about the whereabouts of Geeta Devi. PW-9 went in search of his sister and was entertaining a suspicion that his sister would have been killed. Local villagers informed him that on the night of 23/ 24.11.1994, the appellants have murdered the deceased by joining with Ram Swaroop Mandal, Sk. Jamal, Naresh Mandal and the mother of the 2nd appellant and that after the murder they have hidden the dead body some where. PW-9 went in search of his sister and while he was in search of his sister, at Dholia river, he found heap of earth arranged afresh. On suspicion, he removed the earth and found a gunny bag and when the gunny bag was opened, he found the dead body of his sister. He went to the police station and laid Fardbayan, Ext. 2, on the basis of which formal FIR was registered and the investigation in the crime was taken up by PW-10, Md. Anwar Khan. He conducted inquest by preparing the Inquest report, Ext. 3, and sent the dead body for postmortem.
(3.) On receipt of the requisition and the dead body, PW-11, Dr. Satyendra Mishra, conducted autopsy. He did not find any external injury on the dead body. He found tongue protruding out and mouth was open. On dissection of the dead body, the doctor noticed laceration on pares trachea muscle. Cervical vertebrae was not fractured but trachea and oesophagus were full of frothy secretion. The doctor issued Ext. 4, the postmortem certificate, with his opinion that the death would have been on account of asphyxia due to strangulation.;