DOSAJI KALAJI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants have been convicted of offences Under Sections 302 and 447, IPC by the Sessions Judge, Halar District, and sentenced to transportation for life and one month's rigorous imprisonment respectively for the said offences. They were alleged to have trespassed into Ramvadi near the village of Bhatel about 10 or 12 miles from Khambhalia in the Sessions Division of Halar and committed the murder of one Manubha in the early hours of 31-10-52. The deceased Manubha was sleeping on a cot in this Vadi and in the Vadi were also sleeping three other persons (1) Jorubha, (2) Ravubha and (3) Sava Ranmal, the sathi of the deceased. There is no dispute that there existed an old feud between the families of the appellants and the deceased who are all distant cousins. About 4 or 5 years before the present incident Vajesing who was the nephew of the first appellant Dosaji Kalaji was alleged to have been murdered by four persons (1) Manubha, the deceased, (2) Jorubha, who figures as a witness in the present case, as he was sleeping at the Ramvadi at the time of the murder of Manubha, (3) Nagji, the father of the witness Ravubha, who was also sleeping at the Ramvadi and (4) Sidubha, the cousin of Jorubha and a partner in the Ramvadi. These 4 persons were tried for the murder of Vajesing. Jorubha was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted; Manubha, the deceased, was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment and the other two. i. e. Nagji and Sidubha were sentenced to transportation for life. They are still in jail, while the deceased after serving the sentence was at large. The second appellant Shivubha is the nephew of the first appellant Dosaji Kalaji. He is a very young man of 17 or 18 years of age, while the First appellant Dosaji is an old man of about 60 years.

(2.) THERE is no dispute that the deceased was most brutally done to death and died on the spot before he could make any statement. He had in all 11 external injuries, 6 of which were incised wounds and others were abrasions and lacerated wounds, one being a contused wound; two of the injuries were fatal and the conclusion from the medical evidence is that at no time there was any chance of survival: immediate death must have occurred in less than five minutes; there were as many as 6 fractures of the skull bone. So there is no doubt that the persons guilty of inflicting such injuries must be guilty of the offence of murder in the first degree. Mr. O. N. Shah, the learned Advocate for the appellants, has also not addressed us so far as the nature of the offence committed is concerned.

(3.) THE only question is about the identity of the assailants. In the first information report or occurrence report alleged to have been given by Jorubha the names of Sadubha and Gagubha along with two appellants are mentioned as the assai-ants. There is considerable confusion as regards these reports and the learned Sessions Judge has adversely commented upon the truth of the witnesses who have given evidence as regards them. His conclusion is that although the offence had taken place after midnight, these reports were probably not prepared at 4 a. m. but prepared at about 7 a. m. a little before the train departs for Khambhalia. He observes: