STATE OF M P Vs. DHANNALAL MORUJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the State of Madhya Pradesh from the order of the Fifth Additional Sessions Judge, Indore, dated 29-7-1959, acquitting the respondent Dhannalal Lorwal of charges under Sections 302, 307, 328, I. P. C. The case depended purely on circumstantial evidence and is of considerable interest on account of the very nature of the offence, which was nothing short of an attempted mass murder by arsenic poisoning, certainly committed by somebody; intrinsic limitations of handwriting examination, however expert and conscientious the examiner and, in general the quantum of corroborating circumstantial evidence necessary to justify the conviction of any person on account of identity sought to by established by evidence of handwriting.

(2.) THE non-controversial facts of the case are that a most shocking attempt at mass murder by arsenic poisoning took place on the morning of 7th December 1958 in one of the sections of the Malwa Mills - a well known industrial establishment at Indore, The practice in that section - as possibly in other sections of the mill also - was for the employees on the morning of the first working day of each week which would usually be Monday to perform pooja of some religious pictures and to share the prasaad usually some sweets. This seems to be going on for some time. Apparently it was in the choice of the individual workers in that section to foot the bill for the sweets - especially of the senior and the better paid ones. On that morning it seems to have been the turn of one Tularam, an employee who had recently got a sort of promotion to the position of "head cut-looker". He came at the usual hour but one other employee had come earlier, probably to attend to some work left over from the previous evening. When Tularam came let us say round about 7-0 a. m. he found on his table quite a large number of packets containing pedas most of them name-labelled on the wrappings, which had been torn out of a recent copy of a Diwali number brought out by an Indore newspaper. In addition, some more quantity had been thrown in for distribution to those who had been for gotten in the name labels and who might have come in temporarily as badlis. There was a covering letter in Hindi ostensibly written and signed by one Jagrupsingh Sengar, a real person who had, however, left employment in that section some years before and had settled elsewhere in the State. The letter itself was a straightforward one congratulating: Tularam on his promotion enquiring about other employees and offering those persons the sweets which the writer had got from Ujjain. It even apologised that some of the pedas had got broken by the inevitable jolting when the stuff was being brought by bus. The writer said that much as he would have liked to meet Tularam and the other brothers, he had to leave in a hurry to see some of his relations. It ended in one salutation to all and with' further inquiries about another of the brothers Very naturally Tularam. was greatly impressed and" called the other employees, he got the packets distributed by names to those who had been given packets, others either shared out of the named packets or took a portion of the general lot.

(3.) THINGS went on happily for an hour or so, till one by one all the employees began to show symptoms, some vomitting and purging and others feeling depressed and all of them with a feeling that there was some thing seriously wrong. Considering the very generality of the reaction, it did not take them long to find out that this had something to do with the sweets. Of the eaters, one Halu succumbed earliest. At 10 O'clock or so, he began to purge and vomit violently and by 11-30 he was dead. In the interval others had started on a similar way. On the advice of the mill doctor, the whole lot of them at least 25 in number as the names have been given, were removed in an ambulance to the M, Y. Hospital at Indore itsel. Possibly, there were some more who also went to the hospital but of whom no record has been kept. Be that as it may, the doctors at the hospital who at the first instance began to treat the patients for gastric enteritis soon found that it was a case of serious arsenic poisoning. Meanwhile yet another man named Shrinarayan also died. But having seized on the true nature of the illness, the doctors could save the 23 others; but only after they had suffered very serious pain and had been in the hospital as in-Patients for varying terms ranging from 3 to 11 days. It is of interest to note even at this place that the respondent who was an employee of the mill, behaved as if he also shared the symptoms, went in the ambulance to the hospital, and also stayed there for some days. But there is nothing in the evidence to show either that he was really poisoned or that he was only acting a part so as to kill suspicion.