Ram Majhi @ Ram Mardi vs The State of Jharkhand

This appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction dated 5.11.2002 and order of sentence dated 12.11.2002 passed by the learned Additional District & Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No.-II, Jamshedpur, East Singhbhum in Sessions Trial No. 51 of 1998, convicting the appellant u/s 302 IPC and sentencing him to undergo R.I. for life. The prosecution case in short is that the informant-Chhanu Manjhi (PW-1) lodged a fardbeyan before the police on 26.10.1997 at about 10.30 AM that at about 6.00 AM, Pawat Kisko (PW-6) informed him that two granddaughters of Mangli Kisko came and informed him that their ''Nani'' was killed by the appellant by Axe when she and the appellant (who cuts and sells wood) were taking liquor. Thereupon, the informant alongwith others came and saw the dead body of Mangli Kisko lying on a cot with bleeding injuries. PW-4, one of the granddaughters of the deceased, told the informant that in the previous night the deceased and the appellant were taking liquor. During quarrel between them, the appellant assaulted her by Axe lying in the house and fled away.

Learned counsel for the appellant assailed the impugned judgment on various grounds and submitted that at best, the case will fall u/s 304 Part-II IPC; and that the appellant has remained in jail for about 15 years by now.

On the other hand, counsel for the State supported the impugned judgment.

PW-1 is the informant. She is a hearsay witness. PWs-2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are also hearsay witnesses. PW-4 is a child witness. PW-10 is the Investigating Officer of this case.

PW-11 is the doctor who conducted post mortem on the dead body of the deceased and found following ante mortem injuries:--

i. Incised injuries on the right side of the head 2" x 1" x bone deep.

ii. Lacerated injuries on the occipital region of the head 1" x �" x bone deep.

iii. Incised injuries on the right side of the back regions, right scapulary region 3" x 1" x �" x 14".

iv. Right lung was cut into two part from its middle portion.

Cause of death was due to shock and cardiac arrest due to severe hemorrhage caused by such injury. Injury No. 3 was sufficient to cause death.

The only eye witness is PW-4. Though she is a child witness, but on going through her evidence carefully alongwith other materials on record, we do not find any reason to disbelieve her evidence. She has fully supported the prosecution case. The manner of assault has been corroborated by the medical evidence. It is true that the appellant assaulted the deceased during quarrel when they were taking liquor together in the house of the deceased and during such quarrel, the appellant assaulted her with a tangi lying there, but in view of the repeated injuries caused by Axe on the vital parts of the body of the deceased, it cannot be said that the appellant had no intention to kill the deceased.

The intention is to be gathered from the part of the body chosen to inflict injuries.

After carefully going through the records and hearing the parties at length, we do not find any reason to interfere with the impugned judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the trial court against the appellant. In the result, this appeal is dismissed.