BABU LAL Vs. STATE (NCT OF DELHI)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KAVITA , a tiny little baby of just one year and odd was made a sacrificial lamb for propitiating the gods in order to get a child for another lady who was childless. The irony is that the perpetrators had chosen Gandhi Jayanti Day for committing this heinous crime. Kavita was burnt and thrown into a water tank on the same night. Six persons were arraigned by the police for hatching a criminal conspiracy for the said murder. All the six were convicted by the trial court and all were sentenced to death. But the High Court confirmed the conviction and sentence passed on two among them (A-1 Shakila and A-2 Babu Lal). In regard to the other accused, the High Court extended the benefit of doubt and acquitted them of the principal offence under S. 302 read with S. 120-B, though all of them were convicted of the offence under S. 201 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. As we are concerned with the conviction and sentence of A-2 Babu Lal, it is not necessary for us to mention anything regarding the other accused in greater detail. That apart, A-1 Shakila has not chosen to challenge the conviction and sentence passed on her which were confirmed by the High Court.

(2.) THE third accused Chaman is the daughter of A-1 Shakila. As she was unable to give birth to a child despite lapse of many years after marriage, her mother Shakila and the daughter might have been thinking of devices to have a child for Chaman. According to the prosecution case, the idea of sacrificing another child for pleasing the gods to enable Chaman to bear a child was injected into the minds of Shakila and Chaman by the sixth accused Tabiz Khan. Thereafter, all the six accused conspired together and evolved a scheme for it. They fixed up a child for the purpose of making that baby the sacrificial lamb for the purpose.

(3.) THE present appellant Babu Lal was assigned with the task of abducting the child. He went to the place where the child was sleeping on a cot just outside the house. At a particular time the grandfather had gone out for answering the call of nature. The appellant Babu Lal had knocked away the child during that short interval. On the way, appellant Babu Lal was buttonholed by PW 3, Ram Phal but the appellant told him to mind his own business, lest, he would have to meet dire consequences. This was enough to scare PW 3 who went home and slept. The child was taken to the other members of the conspiracy. After performing some ceremonial rituals on the child she was put to burn and thereafter she was dropped in the water tank where she died of drowning.