LAL SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by Lal Singh, who has been convicted by the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Mainpuri under Section 302 and Section 201 read with Section 611, Penal Code. The appellant has been awarded a sentence of death under Section 302, while under Section 201/ 511 I. P.C. he has been sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment. Along with the appeal there is also a reference by the learned Judge for the confirmation of the sentence of death passed on appellant Lal Singh.

(2.) The facts of this case fall within a narrow ambit and may be succinctly stated as follows:

(3.) Lal Singh, the appellant, was married to Shanti Devi about eight years ago. Shanti Devi was the daughter of Mathura Singh, who lived in an adjoining village, six miles away, from hamlet Khiria, where Lal Singh, and his wife resided. Some two or three years back relations between Lal Singh and his wife became strained and Lal Singh started ill-treating her. The reason, which was suggested on behalf of the prosecution for this illtreatment of Shanti Devi by Lal Singh, was that Lal Singh had contracted an illicit intimacy with a young widow named Raj Kumari. The relationship of Raj Kumari and Lal Singh became so intimate and so open that Lal Singh is alleged to have started living in the house of Raj Kumari and having his meals also with her. Raj Kumari's house was situated close to the house of Lal Singh for only one other house intervened between these two houses, According to the prosecution case, the house of Lal Singh, only had in it as an occupant Shanti Devi, This house was a small one having a kothri, a court-yard and a dehliz. Even while Lal Singh was carrying on his illicit intimacy with Raj Kumari, he appears to have had some sort of marital relationship with Shanti Devi, for, according to the prosecution case, a son was born to Shanti Devi on 15-1-1955, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The confinement of Shanti Devi took place in the house in which she resided. On the prosecution case there is no suggestion as to who, if any one, assisted Shanti Devi at the time of her confinement. There is also no suggestion on behalf of the prosecution that there was any help available to Shanti Devi at the time of her confinement. On the morning of 16-1-1955, Lal Singh is alleged to have called out some people and told them that his Wife had suddenly stopped speaking & that he wanted them to go and see what the matter was with her. At this call some witnesses went in & found Lal Singh's wife, Shanti Devi, dead. At the time when they entered the room in which Shanti Devi lay, they discovered that in that room were present Lal Singh and his mistress Raj Kumari, and they also found the newly born infant by the side of Shanti Devi. Information thereafter was conveyed to the father of Shanti Devi, Mathura Singh, of the fact that Shanti had died and Mathura Singh, on receipt of the information, hurried to hamlet Khiria to be by the side of his dead daughter. By 9 or 10 a.m. the body of Shanti Devi was removed from the house for cremation to the cremation ground. According to the prosecution, some of the Villagers objected to Lal Singh cremating Shanti before Shanti's father had arrived, but Lal Singh did not pay any heed to it and took the body to the cremation ground and started the preliminaries for the cremation. Shanti Devi was, according to the prosecution case, actually laid on the funeral pyre when Mathura Singh arrived somewhere near the cremation ground, for he went there on receipt of the information that the body had been taken to the cremation ground. According to the prosecution case Mathura Singh shouted to Lal Singh not to set fire to the pyre and yet Lal Singh did not desist but ignited the funeral pyre. Mathura Singh thereupon rushed up with some men and dragged out the body of Shanti from the funeral pyre, even though it had been set on fire. Fortunately, the body did not sustain any burns. On examination they found a mark on the neck of Shanti Devi's body which aroused their suspicion and, therefore, the Chowkidar of the village, Niranjan, was despatched to police station Kuraoli to lodge a report, for the villagers now formed an opinion that Shanti Devi had not met her death due to natural causes but had died of violence. Naranjan's report was recorded at the police station at 4 o'clock on the afternoon of 16-1-1955. In this report Niranjan stated this;