BABU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will dispose of Criminal Appeals Nos. 55 and 56 of 1969, which have arisen out of the same case and are directed against the. same judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge. The appeals have been filed by Babu, son of Mohd. Rafiq, resident of Gali Saydan Bazaar Chitlikabar, Delhi, and Mehfooz Ilahi, son of Ashiq Ilahi, resident of Gali Madarsa Churiwalan, Delhi, respectively. The prosecution case against the appellants was as under :-

(2.) Azizul Rehman had another daughter, named Saira. aged 8 or 9 years. On 9-1-1968, at about 4 or 4.30 P.M., Saira had gone to witness a Tamasha of a tame bear in the Churiwalan street. Shortly thereafter, Saira was seen by Mohd. Hafiz (Public Witness -2) being taken away by Babu appellant. She had a dona containing Namak Batasha in her hand. Babu had taken Saira to the house of Mehfooz llahi. There, he had committed rape on her. Saira had become unconscious. Babu had, with the Khukri (Ex. P-8), which was lying in the house of Mehfooz llahi, chopped off the head, arms and legs of Saira from the rest of her body and had badly mutilated her private parts. Babu had put the head, wrapped in a gunny bag, in a canister and had thrown the canister in the drain near the Municipal Corporation office. Babu had then returned to the house of Mehfooz llahi. He had wrapped the arms and legs of Saira in a gunny bag and had also put the torso in another gunny bag. The gunny bag, containing the arms and legs, was taken by Babu and Mehfooz Ilahi in a rickshaw to the Railway Station, Delhi. The bundle was carried by them to the platform. It was placed, by Babu, in a third class coach of a train which was leaving for Allahabad. Both Babu and Mehfooz llahi had come back to the house of Mehfooz llahi. The gunny bag, containing the torso, was thrown into the moat of the Red Fort by Mehfooz llahi.

(3.) As Saira did not return home on 9-1-1968, after she had left for witnessing the Tamasha, her mother, Smt. Mumtazi (PW-5) made inquiries in the neighbourhood, but Saira could not be traced. At about 7.00 P.M., Azizul Rehman (Public Witness -1), the father of Saira, had also returned to his house from his work. Both the husband and the wife made a search for Saira throughout the night. But their search did not yield any result. On 10-1-1968 at about 10.00 A.M., Smt. Mumtazi lodged the report, Ex. Public Witness .12/A, at the Police Station, Kotwali Delhi about the missing of Saira. On 11-1-1968, Azizul Rehman and Smt. Mumtazi had decided to go to Meerut to consult an astrologer about the missing of Saira. Mehfooz llahi was at Delhi on the 11th. At Meerut, Azizul Rehman and Smt. Mumtazi had visited the house of the in-laws of Mehfooz llahi. Mehfooz llahi was lying there on a cot. Smt. Mumtazi had asked Mehfooz llahi that he should return Saira to them and that they would not take any action against him. Mehfooz llahi had replied that he did not know about Saira and that if they so desired they could have one of his children. Azizul Rehman and Smt. Mumtazi had come back to Delhi on 11-1-1968, in the evening. Mehfooz llahi had reached back Delhi before them.