- (1.) THE appellant was charged with, tried for the offence under Section 302, IPC for having killed his own wife Marsila Pawaria on the night of 8.9.1995 and by the impugned judgment dated 17.3.1998, the trial Court had convicted the appellant for the aforesaid offence and had further sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.
(2.) THE case against the appellant was registered on the basis of the fardbeyan of the informant Kandni Hansda (PW 1) recorded at the Primary Health Centre in the early hours of the morning at 5.30 a.m. on 9.9.1995 by the police officer of the concerned police station. The allegations against appellant is that the informant's daughter Marsila Pawaria was married to him and both of them used to live together at village Padan Pahari, though they used to make frequent visits to the house of the informant. The daughter (since deceased) came to her mother's house on 13.8.1995 and lived with her mother for some time. On 6.9.1995, her husband, namely, the present appellant came to take her back. Two days' later, deceased and her husband were seen off by the informant in the evening at about 6 p.m. Prior to seeing them off; the informant had purchased a blouse and petticoat for her daughter from Shikaripara Hat. The informant accompanied herdaughter and son -in -law, up to the river bank located a distance of half a kilometer from her house. On the same night, while she was sleeping at her house, four persons, namely, police Hansda, Suresh Hansda, Doman Hansda and John Tudu of village Pokharia, came to her house and woke her up and informed her that her son - in -law had assaulted her daughter and the injured was lying on the ground at the border of the village Daldali and Amgachi Hatia. On this information, the informant along with her son Stephen Pauria and co -villagers Sushil Hansda and Babuje Pauria and the above named four visitors proceeded to Amgachi Hatia. When she reached there, Santosh Hansda and Bara Bhima Hansda @ Phogra, both residents of village Pokharia, told her that her injured daughter was taken to the Kathi Kund Sadar Hospital. They also showed her the place where blood -stains were found on the ground. The informant thereafter came to the hospital where she found her daughter lying unconscious with several injuries on her body. The injured, however, could not survive and died in the hospital in course of her treatment. Attributing motive to the alleged murder, the informant had alleged that her deceased daughter had told her earlier, that prior to her marriage with the present appellant, he had maintained love affairs with a village girl, who was married to another person in village Sahejori, and even after marriage, the appellant used to meet her, whenever she came to the house of her parents and against such affairs of her husband, deceased used to protest and it was in retaliation to her protest that the appellant had killed his wife. The appellant had pleaded non -guil -ty to the charge, with claiming innocence and of his false implication at the instance of the Mukhia of the village (PW 4), who had connived with the villagers of Pokharia for protecting them against the murder of the deceased, which they had committed and it was the Mukhia, who had misled the investigation by diverting the investigation towards the appellant.
(3.) AFTER registration of the case, the police had prepared the inquest report pertaining to the dead body of the deceased in presence of witnesses. Thereafter the dead body was forwarded for post - mortem examination, which was conducted by Dr. Sulean Murmu (PW 2). As per evidence of the doctor read with the post -mortem report (Exhibit 1), the following ante -mortem injuries were found on the dead body : '' (i) Lacerated wound measuring 2" x l"x bone deep, over the left side of the forehead. On dissection, the doctor had found fracture of the frontal bone and the connecting layer and meninges were found lacerated with collection of blood inside the cranium. (ii) Lacerated wound measuring 2" x 1 -1/2" x bone deep over the left side of chin with fracture of mandible. (iii) Depression of the left side of the face with echymosis with fracture of left maxilla. (iv) Abrasion 4" x 1" into superficial over the lower part of the left side of face. ;