Criminal Appeal No. – 695/2017
DELHI HIGH COURT
Date of Judgement: 19th January 2018
Bench: Hon’ble Vipin Sanghi J., Hon’ble P. S. Teji J.
Relevant Acts/Sections:
- Section 106 IEA (Burden of providing fact especially within knowledge)
- Section 302 IPC (Punishment for Murder)
- Section 27 IEA (How much of information received from accused may be proved)
Branch: Forensic Physics
Backstory
On 25th June 2007, at about 11:33 P.M., the police received information about the murder at House No. 6/207, Block No. 6, Trilok Puri, Delhi. SI Om Prakash along with Ct.Shiv Kumar reached the spot and on the ground floor found a dead body wrapped in a black color cotton bag. The dead body was identified as Pooran Chand (deceased) by his son Shiv Kumar. The statement of Shiv Kumar s/o Pooran Chand was that they were two brothers and a sister, the elder brother was Deepak and sister was Seema, and mother Rekha. Father Pooran Chand works in MCD.
On 25th June 2007 at about 12:30 P.M., Pooran Chand returned home from work, had meals, and got his head and legs massaged from Shiv Kumar and slept on the ground floor. Deepak elder s/o of Pooran Chand sent Shiv Kumar to 22 Block, Trilok Puri, to get the prices of memory card, lead charger, and two connections. Deepak met him near the house stairs and Shiv Kumar informed him about the cost, which is Rs. 860/-. Again, Shiv Kumar sent to 15 and 10 Block, Trilok Puri, to know the price of the same items. Deepak met Shiv Kumar on the road outside the street and inform him that the rates were the same. Shiv Kumar found that the ground floor room was locked, he asked the same with Deepak and his mother, Deepak told that to remove bed-bugs he sprinkled medicine, and not to open the door. As Shiv Kumar sleeping on the upstairs, he woke up because of drizzle, people had gathered outside the house and one person said to Shiv Kumar, that his brother Deepak murdered his father. Ranjeet (uncle of Shiv Kumar) broke the door lock, and he saw the dead body of his father in a cloth bag stained with blood inside the room.
On the statement of Shiv Kumar FIR was registered and the body of the deceased was removed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital. From the crime scene 1 lock, a hammer, 1 black bag, cloth sheet, towel, vest, and a piece of a vest, one pajama, and one black-white pillow were seized. From the other side of the bed, 11kg and 8kg weighing hammers were seized.
Smt. Rekha w/o Pooran Chand during investigation disclosed that she asked Deepak about why the door has been locked, Deepak disclosed that he and Dheeraj had killed his father/deceased Pooran Chand.
On 02nd July 2007, accused Deepak was arrested and recovered 1 piece of vest from bushes near the 8 Block, Trilok Puri, drain. After locking the room Deepak threw the key, and the said key was recovered. Along with Deepak, co-accused Dheeraj was also arrested.
Postmortem Report
On 26th June 2007, Dr. Mukta Rani conducted the post-mortem of Pooran Chand. She opined that the cause of death was craniocerebral damage and injuries to abdominal organs produced by blunt force impact. The injuries are antemortem. She also examined the hammer and hammer and proved her subsequent opinion the said weapons or similar weapons could cause that injury on the deceased body. The post-mortem report proved it that the death of Pooran Chand was a homicide.
Forensic Report
Dr. C.P. Singh Assistant Director (Physics), Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, established the circumstances that the recovered key was the same key which was used to lock the room, where the deceased dead body was found, he proved his report.
Judgement
Deepak was convicted under Section 302 IPC, sentenced to life imprisonment with fine Rs. 5,000/-.