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Judgment
B.D. Rathi, J.—This appeal has been preferred u/s 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short "the Code") being aggrieved with the judgment dated 10/2/2004 passed by I Additional Sessions Judge, Sidhi in Sessions Trial No. 159/01, whereby the appellants have been convicted, on four counts, for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 449 of the Indian Penal Code (for short "the IPC") for committing the murders of Mitwa, Savitri, Kalloo and Pushpraj Singh and sentenced to life imprisonment with fine stipulation for each count. Prosecution story, in brief, is that Mitwa was married to appellant no. 2 Budhsen about 10-12 years prior to the date of incident. However, Mitwa having developed illicit relationship with Pushpraj Singh, had deserted Budhsen for the last three years, and leaving her matrimonial home at Village Rajdiha had started residing at her parental Village Madariya and due to this, Budhsen was nurturing grouse against her. On 26/7/2001, Budhsen, along with his cousin appellant no. 1 Shriman alias Rajje came to the house of Mitwa at Village Madariya and insisted upon taking their daughter with him, leading to bitter arguments between them. At that time, Mitwa, her daughter Savitri, younger brother Kallu and Pushpraj Singh were also present in the house of Mitwa along with Budhsen and his cousin. Next day, Budhsen and his cousin were not seen in the Village. On 27/7/2001, Sukharjua Bai (PW6) along with Shankar Singh, father of Pushpraj, informed at Kotwali, Sidhi that door of Mitwa''s house was not getting opened and on peeping through a hole in the door, blood was seen inside. Shankar also informed that Pushpraj Singh was missing since yesterday. After recording the said information in the Roznamacha Sanha, M.L. Tiwari, Assistant Sub Inspector reached the spot and found that dead bodies of Pushpraj Singh, Mitwa, Savitri and Kallu were lying inside the house of Mitwa. Dehati Nalishi (Ex. P/47) and Morgue intimation (Ex. P/46) were recorded. Against this backdrop, prima facie it appeared that Budhsen along with his cousin Rajje, had committed the aforesaid murders in the night by a sharp edged weapon, and, accordingly, First Information Report (Ex. P/50) was registered. After investigation, charge-sheet was filed.
Autopsies were conducted by Dr. Ajay Shrivastava (PW1), who opined that deceased persons had died mainly due to coma and hemorrhagic shock caused by excessive external bleeding through the neck wounds cutting the major blood vessels. Besides this, head injury was also noticed on the dead bodies of Kallu and Pushpraj Singh. According to him and, admittedly, the deaths were homicidal in nature.
During investigation, on 30/7/2001 a Tangi and an Iron Rod were seized at the instance of appellant no. 1 Shriman alias Rajje vide seizure memo (Ex. P/18), while his clothes were seized vide seizure memo (Ex. P/19). These articles, along with those seized from the spot, were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar for examination. Corresponding FSL report is Ex. P/53.
On 20/9/2001, a Mangalsutra and Payal of Mitwa, were seized vide seizure memo (Ex. P/22) at the instance of appellant Budhsen. Their test Identification was conducted on 18/10/2001 by Ramgopal (PW15) and the same were identified by Kalibai (PW12). Premiya (PW7) was also examined to prove the factum of extra judicial confession. However, the prosecution could not prove the aforesaid facts.
The appellants abjured the guilt and pleaded false implication.
Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the entire case of the prosecution was based upon circumstantial evidence and the chain of circumstantial evidence was not complete. According to him, conviction of the appellants, which was based upon the evidence of interested witnesses viz. Sukharjua (PW6) and Premiya (PW7) and recovery of blood stained articles allegedly seized at the instance of appellant no. 1 not proved by independent witnesses, was bad in law and, accordingly, the judgment of conviction deserved to be interfered with. He further argued that the finger prints were not lifted from the seized articles and tallied with those of the appellants. He, therefore, prayed that the appellants deserved to be acquitted.
On the contrary, learned Government Advocate, while making reference to the incriminating pieces of evidence on record, submitted that the conviction is well merited. He also argued that it is for the prosecution choice how to prove its case, therefore non examination of certain witnesses would not be fatal to the case of the prosecution.
Having regard to the arguments advanced by the parties, we have perused the evidence and material on record.
Conviction of the appellants inter alia is based upon the testimony of Sukharjua (PW6) and Premiya (PW7), respectively the maternal grandmother and sister of Mitwa. Sukharjua has deposed that a day prior to the date of incident, at 4 p.m., appellants were quarrelling with Mitwa for taking her to her matrimonial home at Rajdiha, while Mitwa was not interested. As she tried to pacify the appellants, they rebuked and misbehaved with her. She had gone with Ramnath to Mitwa''s house next day only and was not aware of the happenings during the intervening period. Trial Court found her evidence to be credible. Premiya (PW7) is the elder sister of Mitwa and sister-in-law of the appellants. According to her, on the fateful day, Mitwa was residing at her parental home at Village Madariya. On 25/7/2001, Budhsen had come from Mirzapur to Rajdiha and on 26th had gone to Village Madariya. From, the deposition of the above two witnesses, it is proved that the appellants had reached Madariya in the evening of 26th and had quarreled with Mitwa in the presence of Sukharjua. The incident had occurred in the night intervening 26th and 27th of July 2001. Non corroborative evidence of other witnesses is immaterial in view of the fact that there was no reason for Sukharjua and Premiya to falsely implicate the appellants, who were also their relatives.
Investigating Officer Vijay Singh Parihar (PW16) deposed in paragraph 5 of his evidence that on 30/7/2001, appellant no. 1 was interrogated and at his instance a Tangi and an Iron Rod were seized vide seizure memo (Ex. P/18) and his Pant and Shirt were seized vide seizure memo (Ex. P/19). The seizure has been proved by Anup Singh (PW3). The said articles were sent to Forensic Science Lab, Sagar for examination vide Ex. P/52. Corresponding report (Ex. P/53) indicated that human blood was found on them.
Factum of illicit relationship between Mitwa and Pushpraj Singh is well established from the prosecution evidence brought on record.
Accordingly, the learned trial Court, taking into consideration the factum of illicit relationship between Mitwa and Pushpraj, occurrence of a quarrel between the parties just prior to the incident, seizure of blood stained articles at the instance of appellant no. 1 and unusual departure of appellant no. 1 immediately after the incident from Village Rajdiha against his usual practice of staying for 10-15 days as deposed by Premiya (PW7), rightly held that the chain of circumstantial evidence was complete and the offences of murders were committed by the appellants only.
Non lifting of finger prints from the seized articles or non examination of certain witnesses, cannot be said to be fatal to the case of prosecution, as prosecution cannot be compelled to adopt a particular course of action for proving its case and it is the sole choice of the prosecution how to prove its case. Moreover, minor irregularities during the course of investigation are immaterial. Further, non examination of independent witnesses also does not render the prosecution case doubtful as now-a-days, people avoid getting embroiled in legal proceedings.
In the aforesaid premises, we are of the considered view, that the impugned judgment was based upon proper appreciation of evidence on record and, accordingly, no interference is called for. Accordingly, the appeal stands dismissed. Impugned convictions and consequent sentences are, hereby affirmed. Copy of the judgment be sent to the trial Court for compliance.