RADHAKRISHNA NANDAJI Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant Radhakrishna son of Nandaji of village Ghinoda has been convicted under Section 302 IPC (for the murder by cutting the neck of Khemraj son of Nanuram Dhakad with a dhariya) sometime on the night of the 14th May 1960. He has been sentenced to imprisonment for life. Based solely on circumstantial evidence, the present case involves further interesting questions regarding the form and the effect of the statements legally admissible under Section 27 Evidence Act on account of direct connection with a discovery, and, also, on grounds of prudence, the sufficiency or otherwise of such a statement by itself for a conviction.

(2.) THE village Ghinoda lies on a main road. By its side there are two or three 'hotels', small canteens about 10' square covered by corrugated tin sheeting at a height barely over 6'. Near them are also a number of platforms used for resting water drums, or constructed in the memory of this or that pious person. One Raghunath (P. W. 5) and one Laxminarayan (P. W. 7) own two of the hotels, while a third was being constructed at that place by Khemraj deceased whose house, however, is at a short distance. Khemraj had actually been working with some servants on the construction till some time through the night after which he went way.

(3.) THE examination of the corpse and of the locality showed beyond doubt that the man had been killed after he had got upon the roof and had probably slept away. The time was certainly a few seconds or at the most a minute or two before Murlidas woke up, because he felt the fresh blood spurting on him. A third person could not have climbed on the roof without disturbing, either or both the sleepers; obviously Khemraj had been killed by somebody standing on the platform nearby and aiming a powerful single blow on his neck, nearly cutting the trachea as well as the arteries and veins.