The Chhattisgarh High Court has upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of a 22-year-old man for the brutal murder of a woman and her minor daughter in Raipur. The court observed that the chain of circumstantial, medical, and scientific evidence unmistakably established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The accused had previously faced a rape case filed by the woman and was also under trial in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case involving the daughter.
Court's Decision on Insanity Plea
Rejecting the accused's insanity plea, a division bench comprising Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal dismissed the criminal appeal on May 11. The appeal was filed against the trial court's July 19, 2022 judgment, which convicted the accused under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code for the murder of the woman and her minor daughter. The High Court held that the prosecution successfully established a complete and unbroken chain of incriminating circumstances, leaving no room for any reasonable doubt regarding the appellant's involvement.
Details of the Crime
According to the prosecution, the accused murdered the woman by stabbing her in the neck near Jora Maidan in Raipur on the night of January 22, 2021. He then allegedly took her minor daughter to a nearby railway track and abandoned her there. The child was subsequently run over by a goods train. The prosecution further alleged that the accused attempted to destroy evidence by concealing the knife used in the crime and throwing mobile phones into a pond.
Motive and Prior Incidents
The High Court noted that the accused had earlier been booked in a rape case lodged by the victim woman and was convicted in a POCSO case for sexually assaulting the minor daughter. At the time of the murders, the accused was out on bail. The court observed that a prosecution witness clearly testified that the accused was under pressure to marry the victim woman and had previously threatened to kill both her and the child. This evidence established motive, preparation, and pre-existing intention on the part of the accused.
Extra-Judicial Confession and Forensic Evidence
The court relied heavily on the extra-judicial confession allegedly made by the accused before a former village sarpanch. The bench noted that every circumstance proved by the prosecution was consistent only with the hypothesis of guilt and excluded every possibility of innocence. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed the presence of human blood on the knife recovered at the instance of the accused and on his clothes. The DNA report further established the biological relationship among the accused, the woman, and her daughter, thereby corroborating the prosecution's story regarding motive and relationship between the parties.
Rejection of Defense Arguments
Rejecting the defense's plea of sudden provocation and insanity, the High Court observed that there was absolutely no material on record to suggest unsoundness of mind or grave provocation. The court held that the brutality of the crime, prior threats, and subsequent conduct of the accused clearly reflected a conscious, calculated, and deliberate course of conduct. The bench made strong observations on the nature of the offence, stating that the acts attributed to the accused revealed complete depravity and total disregard for human life. It further observed that abandoning a minor child on a railway track after killing her mother demonstrated full awareness of the consequences of the act.
