Criminal Appeal no- 901 of 2018
High Court of Delhi
BENCH: Justice Manmohan, Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 8th May 2020
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
- Section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder)
- Section 106 of Evidence Act (burden of proof lies on the person himself)
- Section 313 Cr P C (Power to examine the accused)
BACK STORY
A girl named Shakshi, daughter of Mr Pritam Singh and a resident of Munirka was shot dead in her house on 10th May 2013. Two of her neighbour and the main eyewitness named Ishwar Chandra and his wife told the investigators that around 10:45 pm they had heard a noise like a cracker and when he approached the deceased house, he found it locked from inside. On knocking, the door was opened by the accused and Ishwar saw Sakshi lying on the floor. He was dismissed saying it was a personal matter and later his wife saw the accused running away from the house. Based on these statements a complaint was filed against the accused under section 302 of IPC.
The investigating officer got the crime scene photographed and all the evidence including blood samples, the country made pistol and cartridges were collected. The body of the deceased was taken for postmortem to AIIMS. The accused was arrested and he pleads himself not guilty, stating that he and the deceased were having a love affair and marriage was proposed. But the deceased father did not approve to the same and the accused and the deceased had decided to commit suicide, after the deceased had shot herself the barrel of the pistol burst making him unable to commit suicide and so this was not a murder case. Later he gave a contradicting defence saying that he was not present at the crime scene and blamed Mr Pritam Singh along with his relatives of owner killing.
FORENSIC REPORT
The blood sample along with the semen sample of the accused was sent to the Central forensic science lab for comparison with the evidence blood and semen sample collected from the deceased’s cloth and her vaginal swab. The DNA reports clearly stated that the sperms of accused were present in the vaginal swab of the deceased, which indicated that before the murder the accused had committed a sexual assault upon her either with or without her consent. This also convinced the presence of accused at the crime scene during the murder. On the other hand, the autopsy which was conducted on 11th May 2013 by Dr Shanshank Pooniya (AIIMS) showed a bullet wound in the centre of the deceased chest with the entry point (sized 1.2*1cm) being her back and there were no traces of gun powder found on her hands. This meant that the deceased had not shot herself as was being claimed by the accused. The ballistic report of CFSL showed that the weapon recovered from the accused was the same weapon which was used to commit the murder and there was no second live bullet found in the pistol that could coincide with the accused story of a suicide pact. The call record and messages showed that it was a one-sided love, as there was no message from the deceased side.
JUDGEMENT
The court held that the Shubhash was found guilty under section 302 of IPC for the murder of Shakshi and was sentenced with rigorous imprisonment for life and was charged a fine of Rs. 20,000/-.