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Judgment
Ajit Singh, C.J. - The sole appellant Ganesh Gowalla has been convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.5,000/- with default stipulation for committing the murder of his wife Bharati Tanti, aged 40 years.
According to the prosecution case, the appellant lived with his wife Bharati in a one room house situated at village Nagakata falling within the jurisdiction of Police Station Golaghat. And on the night of 19.3.2011, he throttled her to death after beating her with a piece of firewood in their house. Ram Tanti (P.W.2) is brother of Bharati. On the next day on coming to know that Bharati has died, he went to the house of appellant. There he found the dead body of Bharati lying on a bed. He also saw injuries on her body. On the asking of Ram, appellant disclosed that on the previous night he had dealt few blows to Bharati with a stick. Ram Tanti then lodged the ejahar (Exhibit-2) at Numaligarh Police Out Post which was forwarded to Police Station Golaghat for investigation. On reaching the place of occurrence, the police prepared Inquest Report (Exhibit-3) and seized the firewood vide Exhibit-4 from the possession of appellant.
Postmortem examination on the body of Bharati was conducted by Dr. Pallavi Gogoi (P.W.1). She found the following external injuries:
(1) A lacerated injury over right leg middle part measuring 1" x �".
(2) Abrasion over right thigh measuring 3" x �".
(3) Abrasion over left leg, measuring 1" x 1".
(4) Bruise over the neck and below the right mandible region measuring 2" x 1".
(5) Bruise over left side of neck, measuring 3" x 2".
The doctor on dissection also found extra venation of blood with clot below the bruise marks and that tongue was bitten between the teeth. The doctor further found brain, pleurae, larynx and trachea congested and blood hemorrhage in the lungs. The doctor having regard to the injuries opined that the injuries were ante-mortem in nature and the cause of death of Bharati was due to asphyxia as a result of throttling. Her postmortem report is Exhibit 1.
The appellant during his examination as an accused under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in reply to Question Nos. 4 and 5, admitted that he had dealt 2/3 blows with a stick to Bharati because of disobedience, but he did not know that she would die.
Admittedly, the dead body of Bharati was found in the house of appellant. The postmortem examination report (Exhibit-1) of Bharati reveals that she was not only beaten but also throttled to death. As seen above, the appellant during his examination as an accused did not dispute that he was present in the house at the time of incident. The appellant has also admitted that he gave 2/3 blows to Bharati with a stick because of her disobedience. He, however, did not give any explanation how Bharati died due to throttling. In the fact situation of the case, it can safely be inferred that the appellant after inflicting injuries to Bharati with firewood, throttled her to death.
We, therefore, find no merit in this appeal. It is accordingly dismissed.