MEDABAI Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) - On 27.2.1984 Kali Bai, aged i6 years, was extensively burnt at about 7.00 A.M. in her husbands house at village Bijora Khamaria, Police Station, Nohta, District Damoh. She was removed to district hospital, Damoh where she succumbed to her injuries at 1.00 A.M. on 28.2.1984. On the allegation that appellant No.1, Smt. Medabai, the mother-in-law of the deceased, in the presence of her son appellant No.2 Kalyan Singh, poured kerosene oil on Kali Bai and set her ablaze. The appellants were fried on charge of murder. The trial Judge convictedappellant No. 1 under section 302, I.P.C. and appellant No.2 under section 302, read with Section 34, I.P.C. and sentenced both of them to imprisonment for life vide judgment dated 1.8.1985 passed in Sessions Trial No. 97/84 of the Court of 3rd Additional Judge to the Court of Sessions Judge, Damoh, which is under challenge in this appeal.

(2.) Kali Bai was married with Charan Singh, the elder son of appellant No.1, about two years before the incident. The deceased had returned to her husbands place only a few days before the incident. On the date of incident, her husband had gone to the fields. Her mother-in-law (Appellant No.1) asked her as to who had called her there and telling her to go back, poured kerosene oil on her body and set her ablaze with the aid of a burning match stick in the presence of appellant No.2. The deceased cried for help but in vain. After sometime why the villagers collected, she is said to have stated in presence of Deshraj (P.W. 5), Man Singh (P.W. 6) and Hakolabai (D.W. 2) that she had caught fire accidentally while cooking. This oral dying declaration was corroborated by her when Tahsildar, Shri K.N. Mishra (D.W.1), who was camping in that village, recorded her dying. declaration (Ex. D-6). The intimation of her gelling burnt accidentally along with a letter of Sarpanch, Deshraj Singh, was given by Sardar Singh at police station, Nohta. Kalibai was then removed to district hospital, Damoh where at the request of police, Tahsildar, Shri K.R. Jam (P.W. 9), recorded her dying declaration (Ex. P-is) at 7.45 PM in the presence of the doctor who certified her fitness to give dying declaration. In this dying declaration Kalibai implicated the appellants as aforesaid. Her death was intimated by Dr. Malhotra to the police whereupon the offence which was earlier registered under section 307/ 34, I.P.C. was converted into one u/s. 302, I.P.C. and the trial followed resulting in appellants conviction and sentence as aforesaid.

(3.) Relying on K. Ramachandra Reddy and another v. The Public Prosecutor, appellant's learned counsel argued that in view of the admitted inconsistency between the dying declarations made by the deceased in the village and Ex. P. 15 recorded in Damoh district hospital, the trial Judge was in error in accepting the later as trustworthy particularly because the evidence unmistakably shows that Kamlabai (P.W. 2), mother of the deceased, Mulabai (P.W. 1), grand mother of the deceased, Kodu Singh (P.W. 10), grand father of the deceased and Heerabai (P.W. 3), a distant grand mother of the deceased, had already reached the hospital and had influenced Kalibai. As such, it should have been inferred that the dying declaration given by the deceased in the hospital was tainted being the outcome of tutoring and was not liable to be accepted as trustworthy to form the basis of appellants conviction.