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TMI Blog1959 (2) TMI 41X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... P.W. 2 is also a resident of the same place who knows both the accused and the deceased. P.W. 2 was suspected as the person with whom the deceased had an intrigue P.W. 1 protested and asked the deceased to leave the place. But the deceased refused. The accused after returning from the hospital, assaulted and cut P.W. 2 on account of the latter carrying on an intrigue with the deceased. There was a criminal case against the accused and P.W. 12. The accused' has been subsequently convicted by the Additional First Class Magistrate, Tirunelveli. 3. In regard to what happened on the date of occurrence, 8-1-1958, we have got the account given by P.W. 12. On 7-1-1958, at about 121 noon the cutting of P.W. 2 took place. P.W. 12 says that the accused took him saying that they should go and warn P.W. 2, who was carrying on an intrigue with his wife. P, W. 12 also says that when he prevented the accused from cutting P. W; E, he sustained an injury on his right thumb. They then went to ThekkuKadu to avoid being arrested and came back to accused's house at about 10 p.m. and stayed there that night. The deceased was sleeping in a portion of the house. That night when this P.W. 12 woke ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as the saree and blouse which the deceased was wearing at the time of her murder. In the criminal case launched by P, W. 2, P.W. 12 was acquitted and the accused was convicted, the judgment in that case being Ex. P. 2. 5. The accused who was absconding after the commission of this murder, came to P.W. 6's house, five days prior to Pongal at about 6 p.m. The deceased is P.W. 6's husband's sister' daughter. He was found greatly agitated. On being questioned, the accused told P.W. 6 about his murdering the deceased. But P.W. 6 thought him to be highly imaginative and did not really believe that the accused would have murdered his wife. But by that time P.W. 7, the father of the deceased, came there. He asked his son-in-law what had brought him there. The son-in-law told the father-in-law that he had cut P.W. 3 and that he had come there to inform him. It will be remembered that just before the accused had told P.W. 6 about his cutting P.W. 2 and murdering his wife, but that P.W. 6 did not believe him because he had stated that he) and P.W. 12 had committed the murder and that no one could discover the body even after six months, and which P.W. 6 put down as a tal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... efore the Sub-Inspector of Police, Ambasamudram, on 10-1-1958. The charge-sheet was laid on 9-2-1958. 7. P.W. 13 who held the autopsy found extensive injuries to the head with separation of the various fragments of the bones, vault and base of the skull. The dead body was in a state of decomposition. In the opinion of the doctor the deceased would have met with her death by her head being crushed by a stone like M. O. 1. 8. The blood stained banian M. O. 4 which has been identified by P.W. 16 as that of the accused was found to be stained with human blood. 9. The accused stated that it was true that he went with P.W. 12 to cut P.W. 2 on account of his suspicion that his wife was having illicit intimacy with P.W. 2, that he does not know anything concerning the death of his wife, that himself, P.W. 12 and the deceased did not start for V. K. Puram, that he did not meet P.Ws. 6 to 8 and give them information, that- he did not abscond from the bus stand as alleged by P.W. 8, that the banian M. O. 4 does not be long to him and that it is true that he was absconding and surrendered in the hurt case. 10. The accused did not examine any defence witnesses. On the evidence on re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... But it is1 found that he has mentioned these facts to the Sub-Inspector. He has also come forward later With the story that the accused throttled him by the neck and chased him for one furlong. In fact, on account of his statement recorded Under Section 164 CrI. P.C being unreliable, he has not been taken as an approver. Therefore beyond relying upon P.W. 12's statement which is corroborated by the other evidence that the accused must have been present at the scene and knew of this murder full well, we cannot place any reliance on the other parts :. of his evidence proving that it was the accused - who crushed the head of the deceased with the stone M.O. 1 which incidentally was not found to be blood-stained, though probably it may be due to the fact that on account of exposure to inclement weather, the blood-stains might have got disintegrated. Consequently it is not possible to rest the conviction of the accused for murder on the evidence of P.W. 12. 11. The other piece of evidence is that of P.W. 6. But her evidence cannot be acted upon because even though she says that the accused told her that he had murdered his wife, she did not inform P.W. 7, the father of the de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... one hand and Sections 204 to 229 on the other hand. Section 201 relates to the giving of false information with the intention of screening the offender and Sections 202 and 203 relate to the giving or omitting to give such information. There are three groups of Sections in the Indian Penal Code relating to the giving of information. Firstly, Sections 118 to 120 deal with concealment of design to commit an offence; secondly, Ss.- 176, 177, 181 and 182 deal with omission to give information and with giving of false information; and thirdly, Sections 201 to 203 deal with the giving of false information with the intention of screening the offender. Section 201 is intended to reach acts to which Sections 193 to 195 do not extend and not to include acts falling under those Sections. This Section 201 is an attempt to define the position known in English law as that of an accessory after the fact. 16. Section. 201 as just now mentioned presents a case of accession, after the fact. An accessory after the fact said Lord Hale, may be, where a person knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon. Therefore to make an accessory ex post facto ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... offence as used in Section 201 does not contemplate that the accused should know the particular Section of the Penal Code under which the offence falls or the precise character of the offence committed. What the court has to decide is what offence the accused knew or had reason to believe had been committed. When Section 201 refers to offence it refers to the offence as it appeared to the accused, crediting with the knowledge that can reasonably be expected of him. Offence, i.e., a thing punishable under the Code or under the any special or local law if punishable thereunder with 6 months' imprisonment with or without fine : Section 40, IPC A thing is not an offence if it falls within any Section in Ch. IV, Section 6, IPC 20. Reason to believe, Section 20 I. P, C. It is not enough that the accused was aware of a rumour or of a suspicion relating to the commission of an offence, 21. Knowledge : Assuming then that there was an offence committed, and that there is an offender awaiting justice, the next thing required by the Section to be proved is that the person to be charged under the Section must have known or have reason to believe that an offence has been committ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such annoyance. It is one thing to entertain a certain intention and another to have the knowledge that one's act may possibly lead to a certain result. 23. Offender : In the context of Section 201', has now been construed as including the principal or actual offender himself. There were differences of opinion as between the various High Courts formerly. But this has been settled by two Privy Council decisions, In Begu v. Emperor, five persons were charged Under Section 302 with murder, and two of them were convicted. The evidence established that the other three had assisted in removing the body, knowing that a murder had been committed. Without any further charge being made they were convicted Under Section 201 of causing the disappearance of evidence. It was held that the conviction without a further charge having been made was warranted by Section 237 Crl. P.C. In Mangal Singh v. Emperor, that Lordships of the Privy Council pointed out that the proper venue of approach in such a case is first and foremost to consider whether the case under: Section 302 has been made out. If so, that is the end of the matter. If the case under that- Section was not proved then, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... conduct and it would be curious if that which constitutes the evil should condone the offence. See also Rup Narain Kurmi v. Emperor AIR1931Pat172 . Where it is impossible to say definitely that a person has committee the principal offence, he cannot escape conviction Under Section 201 merely because he has been charged also with the principal offence, or because there are grounds for suspicion that he might be the principal culprit; ILR (1932) Mad 63 : A.I.R. 1932 Mad 748. The recovery of the body of a person murdered on its being pointed out by the accused would be very strong evidence of an offence Under Section 201; In re Koricha Venkataswami, 39 Cri. L.T. 977. See also Nagan v. Emperor 1937 M.W.N. 544; Emperor Ponnuchami Thevan, 1936 M. W.N. 1389, In re Periasami Thevan, 1934 M. W.N. 128 Muthu Goundan v Emperor, 1931 M.W.N. 765 In re Parasa Mangadu, 1948 M. W.N. 683 : A.I.R. 1949 Mad 270. In In re, Kaliaperumal AIR1954Mad1088 , the accused was charged and convicted Under Section 303 for murdering a boy. There was no evidence to convict the accused for the offence of murder. The accused admitted the possession of the ornaments belonging to the murdered boy and also the dispo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rer, it will only be a case of gossiping and not with intent to screen the of fender. This connotation vastly reduces the denotation of the persons thus informed, and in practice would reduce itself only to the authorities, persons in authority and the persons so interested that they would take action to bring the offender a justice, e.g., the father, guardian, caste head etc. 26. The position taken by the learned Advocate General is first of all supported by the significant language used in Section 201 and secondly, by decisions. If we carefully study Ch. X and XI of the Penal Code, we find that some Sections use the words that the information should be to a public servant and some Sections lay down that such information should be given by persons legally bound to do so. In the case of Section 201 nether the term public servant nor the term legally bound is used. In other words, persons to whom information is given will take in non-public servants. Persons not legally bound to give information would take in persons like the principal or the actual offender. This false information can be given at a very early stage and the object is to put off the enquiry and screen the o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f not at its commencement, several injuries having been inflicted on her husband in succession, and that, when Shibbi (the cook) woke up, Kalavati's bed was empty and she was found in a room nearby and not at the place of occurrence and she trotted out an elaborate story of dacoity, which could not be accepted as true. 27. Bearing these principles in mind if we examine the facts of this case we find that the requirements of Section 201 as laid down by the Supreme Court in Palivinder Kaur v. State of Punjab 1953CriLJ154 have been, made out. The evidence set out above clearly shows that this accused knew or had reason to believe that an offence had been committed and with that requisite knowledge and with intent to screen the offender from legal punishment, has given false information to P.W. 7, who was interested in bringing the offender to public justice and that this information did mislead P, W. 71 and laid a false trail for him and which false information stood out in its true colours only when P.W. 8 investigated the information given by the accused at the instance of P.W. 7. 28. Therefore, altering the conviction of the accused from Section 302 to Section 201 IPC we ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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