- (1.) By Court.:- Heard learned senior counsel for the appellant and learned counsel for the State.
(2.) Appellant is aggrieved by the impugned Judgment of conviction dated 6.07.1995 and Order of sentence dated 7.7.1995, passed by the learned Additional Judicial Commissioner, Khunti, in S.T. No.149 of 1992, whereby the sole appellant, who is the husband of the deceased, has been found guilty and convicted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Upon hearing on the point of sentence, he has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for life.
(3.) The dead body of the wife of the appellant was found in an agriculture field in the village Dikuloyong, P.S. Khunti, in the then district of Ranchi, on 11.9.1991, and the informant Jeet Munda, who is the father of the deceased lady, was informed about it by Dukhan Swanshi, Dhiraja Swansi and other persons in the same night that the dead body of his daughter was lying in the field, whereupon, he went there and saw the dead body. The FIR was lodged by the informant, the father of the deceased on 12.9.1991 at about 12 P.M., at the Police Station, wherein, he has stated that there was love marriage between his daughter and accused Ghasi Ram Munda, and out of this wedlock, they were blessed with a daughter also, who died after eight days of her birth. He has stated that the accused was in habit of assaulting the deceased and at one point of time, his daughter fled away from her matrimonial home and came to his house. Thereafter, she was taken away by the accused on the assurance to keep her properly, but even thereafter she was subjected to the same treatment by her husband. On 11.9.1991, at about 11 P.M., he was informed about the dead body his daughter lying in agriculture field, whereupon, he went there and saw the dead body of his daughter by the side of the foot way in injured condition. He stayed there for the whole night with the dead body and in the morning, he searched his son-in-law, but his son-in-law was not in the house and he was informed that he had gone to tend the cattle. Thereafter, the villagers searched the accused in the forest, apprehended him and brought him to the place of occurrence and he confessed before them that he had assaulted his wife to death, due to the fact that he had seen his wife in compromising position with another person and thereafter, she was fleeing away towards her parents' place, whom he chased and assaulted by balua (a sharp cutting weapon), which he concealed in the house of his sister. On the basis of this information, Khunti P.S. Case No.89 of 1991, corresponding to G.R. No.471 of 1991, was instituted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Panel Code, against the sole accused, and investigation was taken up. After investigation, the police submitted the charge-sheet in the case.;