Amitava Roy JUDGMENT
Amitava Roy, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. A fond honeymoon trip of a newly wed young couple met with a tragic end, with the mysterious disappearance of the wife from the company of her husband, in the train in which they were traveling on their way back home. The Appellant, the husband, in the attendant facts and circumstances, stands arraigned and convicted Under Sections 304B, 201, 498A of the Indian Penal Code (for short, hereinafter to be referred to as 'Indian Penal Code') and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for varying terms for the offences involved. The High Court of judicature at Patna, having affirmed the conviction & sentence recorded by the learned trial court, the Appellant seeks redress in the instant proceedings, challenge being laid to the judgment and order dated 16.05.2014 rendered in Criminal Appeal (SJ) No. 1169 of 2011.
3. A short preface to the dreadful episode is indispensable. Rani Archana Sinha (for short, hereinafter to be referred to as "Archana") got married on 29.04.2007 with the Appellant according to Hindu rites and had duly joined the matrimonial home. Archana was a practicing advocate and had appeared in a competitive examination in which, as per the results declared on 10.08.2007, she was not selected. The couple planned their honeymoon trip to Darjeeling and proceeded thereto, by Capital Express on the same date. They alighted at New Jalpaiguri Station, and after visiting the places of their interest, as scheduled, they on 14.08.2007 boarded the same service for the return journey at 1500 hrs. As the facts have unfolded from the First Information Report lodged by the Appellant with the Mokamah G.R.P.S. on 15.08.2007, the couple had dinner at Katihar Junction at 2000 hrs whereafter they retired for the night in their respective berths No. 33 (Appellant) and No. 35 (Archana) in coach S-1 of sleeper class approximately at 2100 hrs. As per the version of the Appellant, he woke up at 0510 hrs on 15.08.2007 at Bakhtiarpur Station, to find that his wife was missing from her birth whereafter, he started searching for her on the running train. According to him, when the train reached Patna Junction, he looked for her in the other trains also thereat. His plea is that on being enquired, the passengers in his coach did affirm that the lady was available in the train upto 0400-0430 hours. It is the Appellant's assertion that situated thus, he reported the matter first with the GRP, Patna and eventually lodged the First Information Report with Mokamah G.R.P.S..
4. This account of the introductory facts is available in the aforementioned First Information Report, in which noticeably, the Appellant did disclose his presumption that his wife might have been kidnapped. This information was registered, as FIR No. 26/2007 dated 15.08.2007 Under Section 365 Indian Penal Code between 0400 PM to 0500 PM.
5. While the matter rested at that, on 18.08.2007 at 1430 hours, an information was laid by one Jagdish Chander Sharma resident of Village Daulatabad, P.S. Azam Nagar, District Katihar that on the same day at 1200 hours, he was informed by some children that a dead body was lying by the side of the railway track whereupon, he visited the spot and found the dead body of a femal........