BRIJ LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BRIJ Lal and his mother Smt. Manjhari have been con­victed and sentenced to imprisonment for life under section 302, I.P.C. on the charge of having committed the murder of Smt. Shantii Devi wife of Brij Lal by internationally administering poison to her in Sharbat at about 7.00 a.m. on 30th June, 1969.

(2.) THE case set up by the prose­cution was that Smt. Shanti Devi, due to mal treatment meted to her by the accused, left the house of her by the husband about a year before the occurrence and began to live with her father Khakhanu. About six months later Brij Lal came to the house of his father-in-law and as a result of a com­munity Panchayat in which he tendered apology. Khakhanu persuaded his daughter to go with her husband and accordingly she came back with Brij Lal to his house and again started living with him. However, the husband and the mother-in-law continued to ill treat her. The prosecution case further was that on 30th June, 1969 at out 8.00 a.m. Sheo Ram Kunbi, a resident of the complainant's village Chamaon, happened to pass through village Parmanandpur where the accused resided. He was called by Shanti and was told by her that her husband and her mother-in-law something in the Sharbat and gave it to her as a result of which she was feeling giddy. She requested Sheo Ram to send her father to her. On receiving this information Khakhanu along with his wife, Sukhu Prasad (P. W. 2), Mewa Lal, (P. W. 4), Hari Charan Singh (P. W. 6) and a couple of other persons went to Parmanandpur and found Smt. Shanti already dead. The two accused were making arrange­ment to take away the dead body far cremation. He stopped them from, doing so. How as told by villagers that before her death Smt. Shanti had told some of them that she was feeling disturbed and would not survive. Khakhanu lodged a report at police station Baragaon, twelve miles away, at 12.20 p.m. the same day.

(3.) THE accused pleaded not guilty and alleged false implication due to enmity. Brij Lal pleaded that he had kept insecticide in his house for plant protection and it was just possible that the deceased had taken some thing contaminated by it. He further pleaded that his father-in-law wanted the deceased to manage his affairs at his house but since she did not keep good health he 'was not prepared to allow her to do so and on that account the father-in-law was displeased with him. He denied that he mal-treated his wife. Smt. Manjharia also denied the prose­cution case and alleged that she had been falsely implicated.