STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Division Bench (DB) of the J&K High Court at Jammu comprising Chief Justice Badar Durez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar on Thursday suspended the life imprisonment sentence and granted bail to a convict namely Tara Chand by Sessions Judge Jammu in 2014, who was sentenced for murder of his wife.
The convict Tara Chand had filed an Appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court against the sentence and punishment through Advocate Aseem Sawhney with Shiv Dev Thakur and Anil Kumar Sharma Advocates.
Court after hearing elaborate arguments of Advocate Aseem Sawhney released the convict on bail, after facing a jail term of 11 years. Advocate Sawhney submitted that the convict has been in custody for almost 11 years from February 18, 2007 till date. He submitted that the appellant/applicant was convicted under Section 302 RPC for the murder of his wife, Raj Kumari who died due to burn injuries.
DB observed that Advocate Sawhney has submitted that there is sufficient doubt in the case as to whether the appellant/applicant was the cause of the burn injuries as result of which Late Raj Kumari passed away. He submitted that strong doubts are created because of the testimony of prosecution witness, Mohit Baburia, who was their son and was aged nine years at the time of the occurrence. He was 14 years old when he was testified in Court. According to Advocate Sawhney, Mohit Baburia has clearly stated that his parents used to quarrel often and on several occasions his mother had threatened to kill herself. He has pointed out that the witness stated on the previous day there was an altercation between his parents. On the date of the occurrence, his mother Raj Kumari was down stairs when she got burnt whereas his father, Tara Chand (Appellant/Applicant), was upstairs with him. This according to Advocate Sawhney is clear testimony to the fact that the appellant/applicant was not the person who caused the burn injuries on Raj Kumari to which she succumbed five days later in hospital.
Court further observed that another aspect of the matter which has been highlighted by Advocate Sawhney is that the trial court placed reliance on the so called dying declaration dated February 14, 2007, which is said to have been made by Late Raj Kumari in hospital. According to him, the dying declaration which has been recorded is not in the words of Raj Kumari but that of the police personnel.
With these observations, court directed that the sentence of the applicant stands suspended for the duration of the appeal and ordered his release on bail after furnishing a bail bond in the sum of Rs. 1 lakh with two sureties of the like amount.
