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TMI Blog1972 (8) TMI 144X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2. The accused filed an appeal against the convictions and sentences before the High Court of Bombay. The High Court dismissed the appeal. 3. This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the judgment of the High Court. 4. The prosecution case was as follows. The accused was residing in Room No. 16 of Noorudin Abrahim Baithi Chawal at Sitafali Wadi Road in Mazagaon, with his wife and four children. At about 4 a.m. on March 8, 1968, P.W. 4, Hyderali Wali Mohammed, a brother of the accused, who was staying in the opposite chawl, was awakened from his sleep and was informed that his brother Sheralli was shouting. He, therefore, went to the room of the accused and found the accused outside the room, beating his he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al Officer at J.J. Hospital, examined the wife and the child at about 5.30 A.M. and he found certain fresh injuries on their persons. He described the nature of the injuries in his notice in the Casualty Register (Exhibits 28 and 29). Saifulla died at 6.40 A.M. and Shama at about 7 A.M. on the same day. The post-mortem examination of the body of the child by PW 20. PW 14 found 8 external injuries including an incised wound on the scalp. They were all ante-mortem. PW 20 found 5 external injuries on the body of the child. They included an incised wound starting from middle of nose going vertically upwards on frontal region. They were all fresh and ante-mortem. PWs 14 and 20 have stated that the injuries were sufficient in the ordinary course ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 8 was believed by the trial Court and the High Court, PW 7 has deposed that PW 4 came to Byculla Police Station at about 4.30 a.m. on March 8, 1968, and informed him that the accused was shouting in his room under the influence of liquor, that he along with PW 9 and PW 4, came to the spot, that a crowd had collected outside the room of the accused, that the front door of the room was chained from inside, that inspite of repeated demands, the door was not opened by the accused, that someone from the crowd broke open the door with an axe, that he then found the accused standing in the room with a chopper in his hand, that his hands and the clothes worn by him as well as the chopper were bloodstained and that his wife and the female child Sha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from the beginning to the end of the trial. (2) There is a rebuttable presumption that the accused was not insane, when he committed the crime, in the sense laid down by Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code : the accused may rebut it by placing before the Court all the relevant evidence-oral, documentary or circumstantial, but the burden of proof upon him is no higher than that rests upon a party to civil proceedings. (3) Even if the accused was not able to establish conclusively that he was insane at the time he committed the offence, the evidence placed before the Court by the accused or by the prosecution may raise a reasonable doubt in the mind of the Court as regards one or more of the ingredients of the offence, inc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the occurrence, has stated in his deposition that he found that the accused was in normal condition. His evidence has not been challenged in cross-examination. We think that not only is there no evidence to show that the accused was insane at the time of the commission of the acts attributed to him, but that there is nothing to indicate that he had not the necessary mens rea when he committed the offence. The law presumes that every person of the age of discretion to be sane unless the contrary is proved. It would be most dangerous to admit the defence of insanity upon arguments derived merely from the character of the crime, The mere fact that no motive Has been proved why the accused murdered his wife and child or, the fact that he made n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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