The Allahabad High Court has upheld the life imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine awarded to Piyush Kumar Verma, accused of unnatural sex and murder of an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Shastri Nagar, Kanpur city.
The Court has said that there is sufficient evidence against the accused for the charge of murder. There is no illegality in the decision of the Sessions Court.
The Court dismissed the appeal against the sentence of life imprisonment.
The Division Bench of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Shamim Ahmed passed this order while hearing a Criminal Appeal filed by Piyush Kumar Verma.
The two appeals have been preferred under Section 374(2) Code of Criminal Procedure against the judgment dated December 05, 2018 passed by Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge, Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention from Atrocities) Act, Kanpur Nagar.
The appellant Piyush Kumar Verma has been convicted for the offence under Section 302 and 377 Indian Penal Code while in the connected appeal, appellants Sudhir Kumar Verma @ Mukesh Verma and Santosh Kumar Singh have been convicted for the offence under Section 304A and 202 Indian Penal Code.
“The appellant Piyush Kumar Verma has been sentenced to life imprisonment with penalty of Rs. 50,000/- for the offence under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and in case of default in payment of penalty, to undergo 03 months additional imprisonment. He has been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with penalty of Rs. 25,000/- for the offence under 2 Section 377 Indian Penal Code and in case of default in payment of penalty, to undergo additional sentence of 01 month” , the Court upheld.
Counsel for the appellants submitted that a first information report was registered on a written report of Sandeep Tiwari resident of Shastri Nagar, Kanpur at the instance of Sonu Bhadauria. It was stated that Sonu Bhadauria W/o Hamir Singh is resident of Roshan Nagar. She dropped her daughter Divya (the deceased) at 07:30 A.M. on September 27, 2010 in the school. The daughter was dropped at her residence at around 01:00 P.M. on September 27, 2010 by the female attendant of the school in critical condition. When the owner of the house in which Sonu Bhadauria was a tenant asked about the condition of the girl, attendant did not disclose any fact. The daughter was undress. Her bloodstained dress was found in the bag and in her private part, cotton and cloth were inserted. The girl was not conscious. Her body turned pale due to excess bleeding from the private part. The daughter was immediately taken to the hospital where she was declared dead and death said to have taken place almost an hour back.
Counsel for the appellants submitted that accused Piyush Kumar Verma was having excellent academic record. He did his Post Graduation in Science with first division. He was not having past history of crime. He has been made victim of unfavourable circumstances. He has been convicted and sentenced for the offence under Section 302, 377 Indian Penal Code without having any evidence against him. The judgment of the trial Court is based on surmises and conjectures. It was a case of circumstantial evidence and without there being a chain of circumstances, the appellants have been convicted.
Counsel submitted that the appellant Piyush Kumar Verma was not knowing the deceased Divya. He had no interaction with her at any point of time. Therefore, there was no enmity or motive or even intention of the appellant Piyush Kumar Verma for murder of deceased Divya. The appellant Piyush Kumar Verma has still been convicted for the offence under Section 302 Indian Penal Code. Trial Court ignored even the definition of “murder” punishable under Section 302 Indian Penal Code.
It is further submitted that the appellant Piyush Kumar Verma was running a separate school, different than the school in which incident said to have taken place. His presence at the place of the incident could not be proved by the prosecution for the offence under Section 377, 302 Indian Penal Code yet he has been convicted for 5 those offences by misreading evidence produced by the prosecution.
The appellants were falsely implicated due to the political and social rivalry between his father Chandra Pal Verma and Sri Dharamvir Bhadauria, a B.S.P. Leader and brother-in-law of the informant Sonu Bhadauria. Due to political reasons, the Investigating Officer was pressurized to falsely implicate the appellants and, therefore, the entire investigation was manipulated.
Counsel further submitted that the alleged blood samples of the donors including accused Piyush Kumar Verma, Sudhir Kumar Verma @ Mukesh Verma and Chandra Pal Verma were said to be containing the case crime number as per the statement of Dr. Ashok Kumar Jatav and Ravi Chaturvedi.
The appeal is seriously contested by Additional Government Advocate. Additional Government Advocate has made reference of the evidence led by the prosecution to prove its case beyond doubt and contested all the arguments raised by Counsel for the appellants. To save repetition, all those arguments would be considered while discussing the arguments of counsel for the appellants.
It is a case of circumstantial evidence. To find out whether the chain of circumstances has been brought by the prosecution to connect the accused with the crime, we would discuss the evidence led by both the parties by framing the subjects to find out whether prosecution could prove its case beyond doubt by making out a chain of circumstances.
The Counsel for the appellant vehemently argued that the prosecution could not bring any evidence to show involvement of the accused Piyush Kumar Verma in the occurrence. We have recorded our finding that presence of the accused Piyush Kumar Verma at the place of occurrence could be proved by the prosecution. The prosecution produced other evidence to connect accused Piyush Kumar Verma with the crime.
Counsel for the appellant has alleged addition of two lines at the end of the recovery memo to show recovery of the underwear. The recovery memo shows recovery of underwear of the deceased and the relevance of the underwear is due to DNA test report. The semen found on the underwear matched to the DNA of the accused and thereby it became relevant connecting evidence.
At this stage, Counsel for the appellant submitted that even the DNA report does not conclude with the finding that semen on the underwear was matching to the DNA of Piyush Kumar Verma rather it was shown to be human semen matching to the DNA of accused who are more than one. The Court erroneously recorded finding against accused Piyush Kumar Verma going contrary to the evidence.
“In the light of the aforesaid, while we are unable to accept any of the argument raised by counsel for the appellant, find that prosecution could bring evidence to connect the accused Piyush Kumar Verma with crime beyond doubt for commission of offence under Section 377 Indian Penal Code. The finding in regard to the commission of offence under Section 377 Indian Penal Code has been recorded at the first instance”, the Court said.
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“We find that trial Court has made a reference of Section 300 Indian Penal Code to find out whether a case under Section 302 Indian Penal Code is made out. The offence under Section 377 Indian Penal Code was committed by the accused Piyush Kumar Verma on a girl at the age of 11 years when she was not fully grown. The injuries to the deceased have been recorded in the post mortem report. The cause of death was due to excessive bleeding and shock. The trial Court has discussed about commission of offence by the accused Piyush Kumar Verma. It has not been questioned in argument other than the interpretation of the definition of “murder”. The evidence on record has proved commission of offence of Section 302 Indian Penal Code by accused Piyush Kumar Verma. We do not find any illegality in the finding recorded by the trial Court. Thereby, we maintain the judgment of the trial Court, vis-a-vis, the appellant -accused Piyush Kumar Verma as none of the arguments of Counsel for the accused-appellant Piyush Kumar Verma could be accepted by the Court”, the Court ordered.
Therefore, the appeal of accused-appellant Piyush Kumar Verma is, accordingly, dismissed.