1 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRA No. 296 of 2025 Smt Basanti Bai W/o Chaman Lal Dewangan Aged About 50 Years R/o Village Sonpur, Police Station Surajpur, District- Surajpur (C.G.) --- Appellant(s) versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through- Station House Officer, Police Station- Surajpur, District- Surajpur (C.G.) --- Respondent(s) For Appellant : Mr. Santosh Bharat, Advocate For Respondent/State : Mr. Akhilesh Kumar, Govt. Advocate CRA No. 1737 of 2024 Surajlal Dewangan S/o Chaman Lal, Aged About 23 Years R/o Sonpur, P.S.-Surajpur, District- Surajpur (C.G.) ---Appellant(s) Versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station- Surajpur, District- Surajpur (C.G.) --- Respondent(s) For Appellant : Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Adv. on behalf of Mr. Pushpendra Kumar Patel, Adv. Digitally signed by BHOLA NATH KHATAI Date: 2025.07.16 11:01:47 +0530 2 For Respondent/State : Mr. Akhilesh Kumar, Govt. Advocate Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal Judgment on Board 11/07/2025 1 Since both the appeals have arisen out of the same impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence, they are being disposed of by this common judgment. 2 Both the appeals have been filed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 09.08.2024 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge (FTC), Surajpur, District Surajpur (C.G.), in Sessions Trial No.28/2021 whereby the appellants have been convicted and sentenced as under : Conviction Sentence U/s 306/34 of IPC R.I. for 7 years with fine of Rs.100/-, in default of payment of fine, additional imprisonment for 3 months. 3 The case of prosecution, in brief, is that on 15.06.2020, the father of the deceased, Sri Prasad lodged a missing report of her daughter Kaleshwari at Surajpur Police Station stating that appellant Basanti Bai came to his house and gave a mobile phone to his daughter to talk to someone and after talking, appellant Basanti went to her house. After half an hour, deceased Kaleshwari left the house without informing anyone. During investigation, on 17.06.2020, the dead body of the deceased was recovered from the well located in the filed of Thakur Dayal Gond. 3 The allegation against the appellants Basanti Bai and Surajlal Dewangan is that they pressurized deceased Kaleshwari Rajwade of village Telsara to marry appellant Surajlal Dewangan and instigated her to commit suicide, due to which she committed suicide by jumping into the well. Based on the report lodged by the father of the deceased, FIR was registered and after completion of investigation charge sheet was filed against the appellants. 4 So as to hold the appellants guilty, the prosecution has examined as many as 20 witnesses and exhibited 28 documents in support of its case. The statement of the appellants were also recorded under Section 313 of the Cr.P.C. in which they denied the circumstances appearing against them and pleaded innocence and false implication in the case. 5 After appreciation of the oral and documentary evidence available on record, vide impugned judgment, learned trial Court convicted and sentenced the appellants for the offence as mentioned in para-2 of this judgment. Hence, the present appeals. 6 Learned counsel for the appellants submit that they are not pressing the appeals so far as the conviction part of the impugned judgment is concerned and would confine their argument to the sentence part thereof only. They submit that the maximum sentence imposed upon the appellants is 7 years, out of which appellant Basanti Bai has already served the jail sentence of about 1 year 8 months and 21days and appellant Surajlal Dewangan has served the jail sentence of about 2 years, 4 months and 7 days. They pray that the sentence imposed upon the appellants may be reduced to the period already undergone by them and 4 they may be released from jail. 7 Per contra, learned counsel appearing for the State, supporting the impugned judgment, opposed the arguments advanced on behalf of the counsel for appellants. 8 Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. 9 Having gone through the material available on record and the statements of Rai Singh (PW-1), Narendra Rajwade (PW-2), Aanand Prasad Rajwade (PW-3) and Tuleshwar Rajwade (PW-5), the involvement of the appellants in the crime in question is clearly established. This Court does not see any illegality in the findings recorded by the Trial Court as regards conviction of the appellants for the offence punishable under Sections 306/34 of IPC. 10 As regards sentence, in the matter of Mohammad Giasuddin v. State of Andhra Pradesh reported in (1977) 3 SCC 287, Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed that if you are to punish a man retributively, you must injure him. If you are to reform him, you must improve him and, men are not improved by injuries and held in para-9 as follows: “9. Western jurisprudes and 'sociologists, from their own angle have struck a like note. Sir Samual Romilly, critical of the brutal penalties in the then Britain, said in 1817 : "The laws of England are written in blood". Alfieri has suggested : 'society prepares the crime, the criminal commits it’. George Nicodotis, Director of Criminological Research Centre, Athens, Greece, maintains that 'Crime is the result of the lack of the right kind of education.' It is thus plain that crime is a pathological aberration, that the criminal 5 can ordinarily be redeemed, that the State has to rehabilitate rather than avenge. The sub-culture that leads to anti-social behaviour has to be countered not by undue cruelty but by re- culturisation. Therefore, the focus of interest in penology is the individual, and goal is salvaging him for society. The infliction of harsh and savage punishment is thus a relic of past and regressive times. The human today views sentencing as a process of reshaping a person who has deteriorated into criminality and the modern community has a primary stake in the rehabilitation of the offender as a means of social defense. We, therefore consider a therapeutic, rather than an in 'terrorem' outlook, should prevail in our criminal courts, since brutal incarceration of the person merely produces laceration of his mind. In the words of George Bernard Shaw : 'If you are to punish a man retributively, you must injure him. If you are to reform him, you must improve him and, men are not improved by injuries'. We may permit ourselves the liberty to quote from Judge Sir Jeoffrey Streatfield : “If you are going to have anything to do with the criminal Courts, you should see for yourself the conditions under which prisoners serve their sentences.” 11 In the light of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Mohammad Giasuddin (supra) and keeping in view the fact that the maximum sentence imposed upon the appellants is 7 years, out of which appellant Basanti Bai has already served the jail sentence of about 1 year 8 months and 21days and appellant Surajlal Dewangan has served the jail sentence of about 2 years, 4 months and 7 days and also considering the entire facts and circumstances of the case, this Court is of the opinion that the ends of justice would serve if the appellants are sentenced to the period already undergone by them. 12 Accordingly, the conviction of the appellants under Section 306/34 of IPC is maintained but their jail sentence is reduced to the period already undergone by them i.e. 1 6 year 8 months & 21days by appellant Basanti Bai and 2 years, 4 months & 7 days by appellant Surajlal Dewangan. However, the fine amount and its default stipulation imposed by the trial Court shall remain intact. 13 Consequently, both the appeals stand allowed in part to the extent indicated herein-above. 14 The appellants are reported to be in jail. They be released forthwith if not required to be detained in default of fine and not required in any other case. 15 Record of the trial Court along with a copy of this judgment be sent back forthwith for compliance and necessary action, if any. A copy of the judgment may also be sent to the concerned Jail Superintendent wherein the appellants are suffering the jail sentence. Sd/- (Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal) JUDGE Khatai