BRIJESH KUMAR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Brijesh Kumar, aged twenty years, and Shiv Narain alias Shiv Charan, aged twenty-eight, were charged along with one Lakhi with offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201, I. P. C., read with Section 34, I. P. C. Lakhi has been acquitted. The other two have been sentenced to death under the first count and to two years' rigorous imprisonment under the second count. They have appealed against their conviction and sentences. Along with their appeal there is the usual reference by the learned Sessions Judge for the confirmation of their death sentences.

(2.) The charge against the appellants was that on the night between the 19th and 20th of June, 1956, between 10 p. m. and 1 a. m. they committed, in furtherance of their common intention, the murder of Battu Mal somewhere in the jungle of village Duhai and they caused the dead body to disappear with the object of escaping punishment.

(3.) Briefly stated the prosecution story was as follows: Lala Battu Mal was a shop-keeper of Ghaziabad and was possessed of considerable property. He had brought up Brijesh Kumar and he proposed eventually to adopt him at the time of his marriage. Latterly, friction developed between the two because Battu Mal objected to Brijes's absenting himself from work and indulging in satta gambling. The antagonism was aggravated when Brijesh wanted to marry a Punjabi refugee girl. The proposal was not acceptable to Battu Mal. On 19-6-1956, Battu Mal left Ghaziabad for Garhmukhte-shwar to take a bath in the Ganga on the occasion of Ekadashi. It is said that he returned back to Ghaziabad by the night train on the same date at about 10 p. m. and was met at the station by the two appellants along with Lakhi. Shiv Narain appellant and Lakhi were the friends of Brijesh. The prosecution alleged that Battu Mal was taken off by them in a car bearing No. U. P. R. 7545, which Brijesh had purchased that very day with the assistance of Shiv Narain. The car was driven to a place near village Duhai about five miles out of Ghaziabad on the Meerut road. Battu Mal. it is said, was then induced to get down from the car and was taken to a field about two furlongs away from the road where he was murdered with a gandasa. It is further said that his dead body was dragged back to the car and was taken to the Ganges canal about four miles further on towards Meerut where it was thrown into the water by Shiv Narain and Lakhi along with the gandasa with which the murder had been committed, along also with the umbrella, Jhola and other articles which Battu Mal had taken with him to Garhmukhteshwar. Next morning Battu Mal's wife Smt. Chaoli became alarmed at the failure of her husband to return home and she sent for Brijesh and asked him to telephone to Battu Mal's brother Anand Sarup who lived in Hapur.