SHUDHAKAR Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An important question of criminal jurisprudence as to in a case of multiple variable dying declarations, which of the dying declaration would be taken into consideration by the Court, what principles shall guide the judicial discretion of the Court or whether such contradictory dying declarations would unexceptionally result in prejudice to the case of the prosecution, arises in the present case.

(2.) The facts as brought out in the case of the prosecution are that the accused Shudhakar was married to the deceased Ratanmala and they used to live at Ganesh Chowk Seoni, Tehsil and District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. They were living in the house of one Krishna Devi Tiwari. The accused was suspicious about the character of his wife Ratanmala. On the date of occurrence, i.e., 25th July, 1995, there was argument between the husband and the wife in consequence to which the accused assaulted Ratanmala. Thereafter, he poured kerosene oil on her and put her ablaze by lighting a match stick due to which there was smoke in the house. The people living nearby gathered around the house upon seeing the smoke and finding Ratanmala in burning condition, took her to the hospital wherein she was admitted by PW8, Dr. M.N. Tiwari and was occupying bed No.10 of the surgical ward of the district hospital. Except the upper portion, her entire body had been burnt. Her body was smelling of kerosene. The injuries were fresh. According to the medical evidence, they were caused within five hours and the burn injuries were fatal for life. As per the statement of PW4, Dr. H.V. Jain, one Dr. Smt. A. Verma, lady doctor, gynaecologist had accompanied him for the post mortem of the dead body of the deceased which was brought by Constable Bhoje Lal from Seoni. Statement of PW4 clearly shows that upon post mortem examination, Rigor Mortis was found on the entire dead body. Both the eyes were closed, superficial burns were present on the entire body. The skin had separated at a number of places. The body was burnt between 97 per cent to 100 per cent. There were burn injuries on the skull and occipital region. The cause of death was shock and hipobolamar which was caused due to severe burn injuries and due to fluid loss.

(3.) It is the case of the prosecution that Ratanmala had told the people gathered there that the accused had burnt her by pouring kerosene oil on her. When she reached the hospital, the doctor had informed the police. The doctors also informed the Naib Tehsildar, DW1, who came to the hospital and recorded the first dying declaration (Exhibit D/2) of the deceased Ratanmala at 4.35 p.m. on 25th July, 1995. In her first dying declaration, she did not implicate her husband and stated that she received the burn injuries from a stove while cooking food. Before her death, two more dying declarations were recorded in the hospital. One (the second) declaration (Exhibit P-12) was recorded by Rajiv Srivastava, Tehsildar (PW9) at 6.30 p.m. on the same date. In relation thereto, Dr. Jain had endorsed the certificate of fitness of the deceased to make the statement. The third dying declaration (Exhibit P-6) was recorded by Sub-Inspector D.C. Doheria, (PW7) in presence of two independent witnesses, Bharat Kumar and Abdul Rehman. In these two subsequent dying declarations recorded by PW9 and PW7, respectively, the deceased had specifically implicated the accused by clearly stating that he had put kerosene oil on her and set her on fire. The reason for not implicating her husband in her first dying declaration was that there was every likelihood that his husband would lose the job.