RAJA RAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Raja Ram has been convicted under Sec. 302, I.P.C. for the murder of his wife Smt. Vidyawati and of his two sons, Raghunandan aged eleven years and Kishan Lal aged three years, some time between the evening of 23rd Oct. 1958 and the evening of 26th Oct. 1958 at his house in village Dhakia-Naru within police circle Bilari in district Moradabad and has been sentenced to death by the Second Temporary Civil and Sessions - Judge, Moradabad. He has appealed against his conviction and sentence. Along with the appeal there is the usual reference by the learned Judge for the confirmation of the death sentence.

(2.) Raja Ram is by caste a Kahar. He was a man of some substance and had about 60 or 65 Bighas of cultivatory land. His family consisted of himself and his wife and two sons as also a daughter by name Tarawati aged about Five years. Raja Ram was, however, not at all industrious and he started selling away his property about five years before the date of the alleged occurrence. Part of the land measuring about 20 Bighas had been given away by him on Batai to one Smt. Rama. His indolence and his wasteful habits were disliked by his wife and she resented the transfers of the property made by him. In this set up of things, it is said, the present offence had been committed.

(3.) The prosecution alleged that two days before Dashehra an altercation took place between the husband and wife over their domestic affairs but the Pradhan of the village namely Surat Singh (P.W.4) intervened and pacified the two. On Thursday the 23rd of Oct. 1958 Dashehra was celebrated at Sahaspur and there the effigy of Rawan had been burnt. The husband and wife with all the children, it is alleged, went to Sahaspur to witness the Mela and they returned home late in the night. Since Friday the 24th of Oct. 1958 the house was found by the neighbours chained from outside, but not locked. This state of affairs was noticed till the evening of Sunday the 26th of Oct. 1958 without obviously any suspicion arising in the minds of the neighbours. On the 26th of Oct. 1958 after sunset Mohan Kahar (P.W. 7) who is a cousin of the appellant and was residing in village Chetrampur came to village Dhakia-Naru and informed Bir Sahai (P.W. 1) that on Friday the 24th of Oct. Raja Ram appellant had gone to his house along with his daughter Tarawati and he disclosed to him on Sunday the 26th of Oct. 1958 in the afternoon that he had murdered his wife and two of the sons at his house on account of quarrel which he had with his wife. Mohan (P.W. 7), it is said, told Bir Sahai (P.W. 1) that he came immediately to verify that fact. The prosecution story went on to say that on receipt of this information Bir Sahai (P.W. 1) took Mohan (P.W. 7), Surat Singh Pradhan (P.W. 4) and one Chhotey to the house of Raja Ram. They found the door of the house chained from outside. There was no sign of life inside the house. They opened the chain and entered into the house and found the door of the inner Kotha shut. They opened that door as well and inside the Kotha they found the dead bodies of Vidyawati, Raghunandan and Kishan Lal in an advanced stage of putrefaction. They also found their dog inside that Kothri. The mouth of the dog was found stained with blood. Bir Sahai then left the place for the Thana along with Mohan and he lodged the first information report there on 26th Oct. 1958 at 9-35 P. M. - the Thana having been at a distance of two miles from the village of occurrence. At the time of the making of the report Sub-Inspector Jaswant Singh (P.W. 19) happened to be present at the Thana. He proceeded to the house of the appellant and found the three dead bodies lying there. One of the arms of Raghunandan was found missing. The Sub-Inspector performed the necessary inquiry inquest, took blood-stained earth and other materials and prepared the site plan. The dead bodies were sent to the mortuary. He arrested the appellant at the house of Mohan (P.W. 7) in village Chetrampur on 27th Oct. 1958. The daughter Tarawati was also there. It is said that a blood-stained Gandasa Ex. 1 which was the weapon of attack was recovered by Sub-Inspector Jaswant Singh wrapped in a shirt in the present of Kaddhey, Ram Dayal, Mohammad All and Puran at the instance of the appellant on the 27th of Oct. 1958 at 6-30 P. M. who dug it out after removing earth one cubit deep from under a stack of Bhusa in the south-west corner of the room. This recovery was set down in the recovery memo Ex. Ka-5 and attested by all the four witnesses, two of whom namely, Puran and Ram Dayal thumb-marked it and the other two namely Mohammad Ali and Kaddhey signed on it in English and in Hindi respectively. The Gandasa and the blood-stained shirt, it is said, were sealed up in the presence of all these witnesses. These materials were sent to the Chemical Examiner and to the Serologist to Government and they reported that they were stained with human blood.