High Court
Case Details
Crl.A. 84/2009 BEFORE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE B.D.AGARWAL AND HON’BLE DR.(MRS.)JUSTICE INDIRA SHAH This appeal is directed against the order dated 3.4.2009 passed by the learned S essions Judge , Morigaon in Sessions Case No. 24 of 2007. By this impugned judgm ent three accused persons, out of five, have been convicted under Section 302 re ad with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and they have been sentenced to unde rgo life imprisonment for life and also to pay fine of Rs.2000/- each and in def ault further rigorous imprisonment for 3(three) months. Being aggrieved with the conviction and sentences all the three appellants have filed this common appeal .
Legal Reasoning
2. Heard Mr. N Ahmed, assisted by Mr. A Rahman, Mr. U Choudhury, Mr. SI Ahm ed and Mr. S Das, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. BJ Dutta, learned A dditional Public Prosecutor for the State. We have also gone through the impugne d judgment and the prosecution as well as defence evidence, proffered during the trial. The prosecution case in brief is that the deceased Aimoni Das was marrie 3. d to PW-9 Tapan Das and since after her marriage the relationship between the de ceased and her mother-in-law was not cordial. There used to be frequent quarrel . Two days prior to the incident a village meeting was held and in that meeting the deceased and her husband were found guilty of battering and mis-behaving th eir mother/mother-in-law. As per the decision of the village meeting the husband of the deceased had to tonsure her head . After two days of the village meeting the accused persons again came to the house of the deceased and physically assa ulted PW-9 and also to his wife. It is the allegation of the prosecution witness es that after assaulting PW-9 the deceased was taken away by the appellants and hanged her in a tree. Initially a case of unnatural death was registered at the instance of VD 4. P President. Subsequently a written FIR was lodged by the elder sister of the de ceased on 22.12.2006 alleging that her sister had committed suicide on the previ ous night. However, a casual allegation was made that she suspected that the acc used persons had killed her sister and thereafter hanged her in a tree. On the b asis of this information a case of murder was registered. After investigation ch arge sheet was submitted against five persons. After charge sheet the accused pe rsons were tried for abetment of the suicide as well as for the murder with comm on intention and finally only three persons were convicted under Section 302/34 IPC. 5. To establish the aforesaid offence altogether 16 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. On the other hand accused persons also examined three perso ns to prove the fact that the husband of the deceased was punished and he was di rected to tonsure his head as ’prasychit’. 6. It appears from the impugned judgment that the learned Sessions Judge ha s come to a finding that the deceased must have been hanged with a tree since th ere was no chair or tool near the tree. Besides this, the theory of homicidal de ath has also been propounded on the basis of testimony of PW-9 i.e. the husband of the deceased. The autopsy doctor has given the following findings while giving his opi 7. nion that the woman died due to axiphysia as a result of hanging: (cid:28)A non-continuous, oblique ligature mark seen at the level of thyroid cartilage with the mark of knot near the mastoid on the left side. On dissection, parchman tisation noted with petechia haemrrhage around the ligature mark found. (cid:29) 8. Except PWs-4 and 5 the remaining non-official witnesses are the relative s of the accused inasmuch as the appellants are the cousin of the husband of the deceased. All the witnesses including the informant have deposed in tendum that after frantic search they found the deceased hanging with a tree. In other word s no witness has deposed that the feet of the deceased woman were touching the g round to take a view that the deceased was hanged after killing her. Since the f eet were hanging only few inches above the tree and since the tree had few numbe r of branches there was every possibility that the deceased could have hanged he rself after climbing the tree with the help of the branches. The autopsy doctor also found some scratch marks in the interior of left hand of the deceased and this fact also reinforces the theory of suicide. 9. PW-9, who is the husband of the deceased, has only given the indictable statement that after their physical assault the deceased was taken away by the a ccused persons. However, this statement was not made before the I.O. In this way , the omission appears to be material one and falls within the category of cont radiction. Even otherwise PW-12 has admitted in the cross-examination that he se nt one Apurba to separate the accused persons and PW-9 and thereafter Apurba too k away the accused Deep. From this statement of PW-12, it can be said that to su spicion of PW-9 that his wife was taken away by accused persons is without any f orce. No witness had seen the deceased being taken away by the appellants toward s the place of hanging. On the other hand all the witnesses from the immediate n eighbourhood have deposed that after the incident PW-9 came in search of his wif e. Had PW-9 seen the accused persons taking away his wife he would have certainl y shouted to rescue his wife by telling his relatives in the and neighbourhood t hat the accused perons had dragged away his wife instead of enquiring whether hi s wife had taken shelter in their house out of fear.
Decision
In view of the aforesaid facts, we hold that it is case of suicide. We a 10. re of the view and that the deceased must have committed suicide since she was f eeling humiliation being punished in the village meeting and it is not a case of homicide. 11. In the result the appeal stands allowed. The impugned judgment is hereby set aside. It is ordered that all the appellants shall be set at free forthwith . 12. The Registry is directed to issue release order.