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TMI Blog1975 (9) TMI 195X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the counts. It set aside the conviction of Kartarey, Sitaram and Baljeet in respect of an offence under Section 148, Penal Code. It, however, maintained the conviction of Kartarey, Sitaram and Baljeet but altered it from that under Section 302/149 to one under Section 302 read with Section 34, Penal Code. Their death sentences were also commuted to imprisonments for life. 2. Kartarey, Sita Ram and Baljeet have now come to this Court in appeal after obtaining Special Leave under Article 136 of the Constitution. The facts of the prosecution case are as follows: Tejpal deceased was a Thakur. He owned considerable landed property in village Giasupur. The accused are Harijans of the village. In the last week of April 1961, the deceased found Mst. Kaila and another woman cutting sugarcane and scraping grass in his field. The deceased rebuked them and snatched away the Khurpi from Mst. Kaila. She resented this behavior of the deceased and threatened to wreak vengeance upon him. 3. On 1-5-1969, at about noon, the deceased was returning home from his fields. When he reached in the lane in front of the house of Kartarey, all the six accused caught hold of him and pulled him int ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hest, abdomen, back and left middle finger of the deceased. Both the lungs were found punctured. The heart was found punctured at the base of the left auricle and so was the diaphragm. The other internal organs also were found injured. In the opinion of the Doctor, the death of the deceased was due to injury to the vital organs, inflicted with a sharp-edged weapon like a knife or a katar. 7. All the accused denied the prosecution case. Before the Committing Magistrate, in answer to the last Question, Smt. Kaila said: Tejpal went to my house and entered the house forcibly. He struck kirpan on my hands and face. He forcibly loosened my petticoat. He started outraging my modesty. When I kicked him, he fell down. I got his kirpan and saved myself. 8. In that court, Kartarey said: They entered into my house and beat me. I did not beat. They are big men. They go me Challenged by colluding with the police. 9. Banarsi also alleged false implication. He is a blind person. Sitaram, Ram Karan and Baljeet pleaded alibi. 10. At the trial, also, Smt. Kaila stated: I was all alone in house. Tejpal came and started beating me badly. He wanted to outrage my modesty. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at Tejpal had come there to have illicit connection with his wife and got enraged. This explains the ferocious nature of the attack made upon Tejpal. 16. With great respect, the observations appear to us to have no foundation in the evidence on the record. They are exceedingly speculative. The defence story was extremely unnatural and improbable. Mst. Kaila wants to have it believed that the deceased was so bold that in broad day light he entered her house and simultaneously attempted to ravish and belabor her with a weapon, in the presence of her husband and husband's brother (Benarsi). This is too fantastic a story which cannot be swallowed even by the most credulous man. Moreover, against the background of the incident which took place four or five days earlier in the field, the deceased would be the least disposed to venture into the house of Kartarey. The fact that there was blood in the courtyard, apart from the blood inside the Kotha, corroborates the ocular account of the eye-witnesses that the deceased had been forcibly taken into the hind courtyard and assaulted and thereafter taken into the kotha and finished there. 17. Kartarey, in his statement which we have ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lay in the direction in which they could not have been intercepted by the witnesses. A glance at the site-plan would show that the entrance door of the house of Kartarey faces the North. The witnesses are supposed to have come from the North to this entrance door, while Sitaram and Baljeet, according to the eye-witnesses escaped through the adjoining house of Sitaram towards the South. In this situation therefore, it was comparatively easy for these two appellants to elude arrest by these witnesses. 22. Counsel further submits that no marks caused by dragging were found on the deceased, that all the stab wounds found on his body might have been inflicted with a chhura by one person. The medical testimony, it is contended, does not definitely exclude that possibility. He placed particular stress on the point that the chhura Ext. 1, was not shown to the medical witness, nor was his opinion specifically invited as to whether all or any of the injuries of the deceased could be caused with this weapon. 23. It is true that neither the parties nor the trial Court asked the Medical witness Dr. Radha Mohan as to whether the injuries found on the deceased could be caused with this par ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2 cm. each, while those of wound No. 7 were 6.5 cm. x 25. This dimension-wise classification of the injuries into three groups points with reasonable certainty to the conclusion that stabs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 15 were caused with one weapon stabs 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 16 with another and stabs 7, 9 and 10 with a third. Thus the medical evidence lends valuable corroboration to the ocular account of the eye-witnesses inasmuch as they say that these injuries on the deceased were inflicted by three persons, one with a chhura. Ex. P-1, and by the other two with katars. 27. The absence of any marks caused by dragging on the body of Tejpal does not in any way undermine the veracity of the ocular account of eye-witnesses. It all depends on the manner in which the deceased was taken from the courtyard into the kotha. If he was carried into the kotha, no such marks or injuries would be caused in the process. Then, it is not known whether the ground was soft or hard. The presence of blood in the courtyard on the door-frame of the kotha and inside the kotha coupled with the marks of dragging noticed by the Sub-Inspector, PW 22, were more than sufficient to lend credence to the prosecution sto ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... harvest. For that purpose Sitaram came to his village on the 28th April. Witness saw him there in Bhondu's threshing floor till the evening of the 3rd May when Sita Ram's brother came and informed him about Tej Pal's murder and Sita Ram's implication in it. 33. Rumal's evidence does not inspire confidence. It is inherently flimsy. In cross-examination he admits that his field is situate at a distance of 5 or 6 chaks - which would be a considerable distance - from the land of Bhondu in which the latter's threshing floor was located. He further swears that he has not been on visiting terms with Bhondu or Sitaram. Still he wants to have it believed - which is impossible - that he had made his threshing floor also in Bhondu's field just close to the latter's threshing floor. Although he claimed that Sita Ram used to visit his village frequently, yet he could not when asked in cross-examination, give the date of any of the visits of Sita Ram, excepting the one he deposed to in examination-in-chief. He belongs to the caste of the appellants. He admitted that he had been brought to Court for evidence by Salanga, brother of Sita Ram. 34. Sukhey D. W. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o attend the Paith occasionally. Witness could not say on which particular dates Baljit attended the Paith, and on which dates he did not. He was then asked as to how he remembered that Baljit attended the Paith on the first May-He replied because of the murder committed on that day at Giasupur. 39. Jagram's evidence is far from being cogent and convincing. It is as vague as his memory. He does not remember any other date, excepting May 1, on which he or Baljit attended or not attended the Paith. He says he has never been to village Giasupur, yet he knew that the murder in question had been committed at Giasupur on May 1. Village Giasupur is less than two miles from the Paith. Even on foot it was not difficult for the appellant to come to the Paith within 20 to 25 minutes of the occurrence which took place at about Noon. With regard to dates and times, as revealed by cross-examination, Jagram was not a dependable witness at all. The trial Judge was therefore, right in holding that the witness had no particular reason to remember the date of occurrence. The inference is that this date was put into his mouth by the defence. In any case Jagram's statement was hardly the kin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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