SHEO DARSHAN Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is from a judgment of the High Court at Allahabad convicting the appellant under sections 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to death for the first offence and to rigorous imprisonment for six years on the second. The sentence under section 302 was imposed for the murder of a boy of fourteen by the name of Sheopal while the conviction under S. 307 was in respect of the attempt to murder one Ram Kumari, the mother of the said deceased.

(2.) The prosecution story, in brief, was that there was enmity between Mathura, the husband of Ram Kumari and father of Sheopal, and the appellant mainly arising out of Mathura's helping his brother Mangali, in litigation for recovery of a sum of Rs. 720/- loaned to one Bulaqi on the basis of a promissory note and Bulaqi being helped therein by the appellant. The appellant was said to have set fire to Mathura's khaliyan in respect whereof a panchayat was held in which the appellant had acknowledged setting fire to the khaliyan and had asked for pardon. The villagers had made up the loss occasioned to Mathura by making contributions themselves but apparently this had not put an end to the enmity and it was said that Bulaqi had refused to pay his debt to Mangali at the instigation of the appellant. The appellant was further odd to have fired a shot at Girwar, brother of Mathura, shortly before the date of the incident out of which this appeal arises and had also threatened to kill both Girwar and Mathura. A report in respect of this was lodged by Girwar at the police station. On the morning of November 9, 1967 the boy Sheopal, accompanied by his mother had gone to a field of karbi at a short distance from the village to cut and collect a load of it. At about 8 a.m. the mother and the son were returning from the filed when the son had a load of karbi on his head and a scythe in his hand. The mother was following the son some distance behind. The appellant who had armed himself with a kanta came out from a Jhundri field of Ramlal and ordered Sheopal to stop. The boy raised an alarm after throwing the load of karbi but the appellant began to give him kanta blows. The mother ran towards her son when the appellant hit her also and gave her two blows with the kanta as a result whereof she fell down on the ground. An alarm raised by the two victims brought several persons, namely. Puttu. Maiku, Dularay, Jhallu, Lakhai and others to the spot. The appellant ran away with the kanta in his hand. All this was noticed by Mathura who had left his house at about 8 O'clock in the morning to go to the field himself. The police station was at a distance of 8 miles from the place of occurrence and the first information report was lodged by Mathura at about 11 in the morning. When the police came they found the dead body of the boy on the village pathway, his mother lying on a cot at a distance of about 100 paces from the spot where the boy was lying. A load of karbi and a blood-stained piece of cloth found near the head of the boy were taken possession of by the police, as also the other clothes on the body of the boy which were soaked in blood.

(3.) The post-mortem examination of the dead body of the boy revealed three incised wounds on the head and an abraded contusion on the outer aspect of middle of the right arm. The doctor was of the view that the incised wounds were caused by a weapon like a kanta and the abraded contusion by a blunt weapon like a lathi and that the head injuries were sufficient, in the ordinary course of nature, to cause death. The medical examination of the mother showed that she had one contusion with swelling around it on the left eye and temple, a contused wound muscle deep on the left side of the skull above the left ear, one incised wound muscle deep on the mastoid of left ear and another incised wound cartilage deep cutting it on the back of the left ear middle. According to the doctor the contusion and the contused wound were caused by a blunt weapon like a lathi and the incised wounds were caused by a sharp-edged weapon like kanta. The eyewitnesses were Mathura, father of the boy, P. W. 2 Puttu, P. W. 3 Dularey, P. W. 12. Maiku, P. W. 15 Ram Kumari, P. W. 16 Jhallu and P. W, 17 Lekhai.