RAJINDER KUMAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Three and a half year old Tonny, son of Ravindernath Goyal was last seen alive on January 5, 1961. A month later on February 5, 1961, his dead body was discovered, buried in the compound of the house of the Goyal's next door neighbour Jagdish Chander and Rajinder Kumar. These two, Jagdish Chander and Rajinder Kumar are father and son. Tonny's body was found in a gunny, bag with a blood-stained piece of cloth stuffed in the mouth; a blood-stained towel was also found in the bag. When the cloth stuffing the mouth was removed the tongue was found pushed to the left side backward locking the throat. The Civil Surgeon, Bhatinda, who held the post-mortem examination has given his opinion that the death of the child was due to asphyxia resulting from suffocation caused by packing the mouth with the cloth.

(2.) Rajinder Kumar has been convicted under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code for the murder of Tonny and sentenced to death. The father Jagdish Chander has been convicted under S. 201 of the Indian Penal for having concealed the dead body of Tonny.

(3.) The prosecution case is that on January 5, 1961, between 3-30 p.m. and 4 p.m. when Tonny was at the house of Jagdish and Rajinder and the other inmates of the house were away Rajinder killed Tonny by stiffing his mouth with a cloth and kept the dead body in the Garage in their house; and that that very night he and his father putting it in a gunny bag. For the entire month after the child was found missing and before his body was discovered frantic efforts had been made by the distracted parents and grand-father of Tonny to trace him but in vain. Indeed, according to the prosecution, the two accused made a show of taking part in the search for the body.