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TMI Blog1957 (7) TMI 37X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ereunder. 2. The facts of the case lie within a narrow compass and have been stated in great detail in the judgments below. It is only necessary to state for the purposes of this appeal that the appellant is the youngest of the three sons of a retired Deputy Collector who was so dissatisfied with his extravagant living that in his life-time he gave away the bulk of his valuable properties to his wife and his two elder sons, as also to the aforesaid infant son, Sudhir, of the appellant, thus excluding him from his patrimony. After his father's death, the mother appears to have had a great weakness for her erring son and in spite of the fact that he used to pester her with his continual demands for money, she used to stay in that porti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eldest brother Harish Chander who got into touch with the police on the phone. The police alerted the police of various towns to look for the appellant who was suspected to be the culprit, and the appellant was arrested at about 9-45 a m., the next morning --August 2, 1955, at a certain restaurant in Moradabad. After the arrest, the police made a thorough search of the appellant's person, and jewellery, subsequently identified and admitted by the appellant himself to be his mother's property (Exhibits III to VIII) was found on his possession. The police also discovered the evidence that the appellant had been attempting to sell the stolen jewellery early in the morning of August 2, 1955, at about 7 a. m., through Rup Kishore (P. W. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ar that the appellant was urgently in need of money to pay his debts to the Grand Hotel, and to redeem the articles belonging to Mahendra Singh. Having failed by his usual methods to extort any more money from his old mother, he appears to have gone into a frenzy by any means to obtain funds to pay his creditors and to continue his extravagant living. Those are the circumstances in which, the appellant placed himself and which impelled him, according to the prosecution, to commit the diabolical crime of murdering his mother and his infant son. 4. The prosecution led a large volume of oral evidence all circumstantial to prove the case against the appellant. During the police investigation, articles claimed by Mahendra Singh to have belong ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se witnesses has been rejected as wholly unreliable by the courts below and need not detain us any more. 6. The effect of the evidence accepted by the courts below is: that the accused was in chronic need of money to meet his extravagant expenses; that he used to be pampered by his mother who gave him money as and when demanded by him either willingly or as a result of threats; that on the evening of the date of occurrence, there was an insistent demand upon the appellant by Mahendra Singh for the return of his articles aforesaid which the appellant had borrowed for use at Moradabad; that the appellant had made a show of returning those articles to Mahendra Singh that night though as a matter of fact they were lying in the Grand Hotel at ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t about 7 a. m. on August 2, 1955, the accused approached the witness from the direction of the railway station, in dirty clothes and split shoes, apparently upset, and tried to seek his help to sell some jewellery saying that his mother was dead and that he wanted the money to pay off his debts. Either the appellant had the guilty knowledge that he was responsible for his mother's death or had been telling a deliberate lie after he had left his mother alive the previous night at Meerut. In either case, he had a guilty conscience. 7. It has been attempted to be shown on his behalf that he had a plausible explanation for the possession of his mother's jewellery. Counsel for the appellant realising that the most damaging piece of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the highest court on questions which are essentially questions of fact, cannot be cited as precedents governing the decision of other cases which must rest in the ultimate analysis upon their own particular facts. The general principles governing appreciation of circumstantial evidence are well-established and beyond doubt or controversy. The more difficult question is one of applying those principles to the facts and circumstances of a particular case coming before the Court. That question has to be determined by the Court as and when it arises with reference to the particular facts and circumstances of that individual case. It is no use, therefore, appealing to precedents in such matters. No case on facts can be on all fours with those ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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