RAJESH MANJHI Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Chetan Chatterjee, learned counsel appearing as amicus curiae on behalf of the appellant who has rendered his valuable assistance to the Court for almost one and a half days in the hearing of this capital appeal. We put on record our appreciation for his efforts as a friend of the Court.

(2.) The incident giving rise to this appeal is of the murder of two children aged about seven and five years respectively, the appellant being the sole culprit prosecuted by the State upon the lodging of an FIR in relation to an incident dated 29th August, 2013 at about 8:00 am in the locality of Sarsaiyaghat under Police Station Kotwali, Kanpur Nagar. The FIR has been lodged by the father of the two children promptly at about 9:30 am on the same day narrating that a son of the accused had died on 28th August 2013, that is a day earlier to the incident, and the cause of the death of that child was believed by the accused to be on account of some sort of magical curse having being cast by the complainant which worked fatally on the child causing his death. It is on account of such a revengeful state of mind that on the fateful day, the appellant caught hold of his two sons, namely, Sahil aged about seven years and Kartik aged about five years and slit their throats with a kitchen knife when they were playing outside along with other children. It is also stated therein that he chased his third son, namely, Golu aged about ten years and attempted to kill him who ran away from his clutches. The complainant further narrates that on raising a hue and cry and after having seen his third son run away, he cried for help, as a result whereof, members of the locality also arrived on the scene. The accused-appellant was apprehended by the complainant with the help of some people on the spot along with the weapon of murder, but the way he had behaved at the time of being apprehended had created terror, as a result of which, many people ran away and shut themselves behind doors. There was an atmosphere of fear amongst everyone including some pilgrims and this incident was witnessed by Sunil Saini, Ram Milan Thakur and Mantu son of Mahendra. At that very moment, the local police arrived and with the help of the members of the locality, the appellant was taken into custody. The body of the two children were carried to Ursula Hospital where the attending doctor declared them dead. The complainant thereafter turned back for the police station where he came along with the accused and the weapon and handed him over to the police. He also got a written report prepared by Basant Lal, whereupon the First Information Report was registered and transcribed by PW-5 Moti Lal Verma (Sharma), the head constable at the police station. The arrest memo as well as the recovery of the weapon was also recorded in the recovery memo which was exhibited as Exhibit Ka-15 and which narrates about the description of the weapon being about seven hand-fingers in length with a metal blade of the same length smeared with blood. The same was taken into custody from the accused. We may mention here that later on according to the statements on record particularly of the Investigating Officer the weapon is stated to have been handed over by the complainant.

(3.) The recovery of blood stained earth and plain earth has also been recorded in the recovery memo exhibited as Exhibit Ka-17. The recovery of clothes has been recorded in the recovery memo exhibited as Exhibit Ka-18.