SHRILAL JADHO Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal by the abovenamed appellant is against his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment awarded under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the facts alleged by the prosecution and accepted by the trial court for convicting the accused are these. The deceased Devilal was the son of Mannu (P. W. 5) and husband of Mst. Mano (P. W. 4 ). Pancha (P. W. 1) is the maternal uncle-in-law of the deceased Devilal. One of the daughters of Mannu (P. W. 5) was married to Badam Singh, the brother of the accused. Bhag-wati was another daughter of Mannu (P. W. 5 ). Bhagwati died during the pendency of the trial in the trial Court. The accused frequently used to come and stay at the house of Mannu (P. W. 5 ). Pancha (P. W. 1) is a Chowkidar of village Dargawan and had on the date of the incident come to the house of Mannu (P. W. 5 ).

(3.) (A) On the night intervening 11th and 12th March, 1970, deceased Devilal was sleeping in his house. Mst. Mano (P. W. 4) and Pancha (P. W. 1) were also sleeping in the same house, but at some distance from the deceased. Suddenly, at about 11 P. M. , the prosecution witnesses Pancha and Met. Mano heard a gun-fire and rushed to the place where the deceased was sleeping. When they came near deceased Devilal, Pancha (P. W. 1) saw with the help of light from a torch battery that the accused was running away with a muzzle-loading gun in his hand. The accused, however, managed to run away. The deceased then uttered a few words naming the accused as the person responsible for the gun-fire. Other witnesses including the father of the deceased Mannu (P. W. 5) also came on the spot and to them also the name of the accused was mentioned as the person responsible for the firing at the deceased. (B) The first information report was made by Pancha (P. W. 1) at the Tenduwa Police Station on the following day at about 6 A. M. in which the deceased was alleged to have named the accused as the person responsible for firing the gun. The informant Pancha (P. W. 1) also named the accused in this report as the person running away with the muzzle-loading gun in his hand. , (C) On 12-3-1970 the accused appeared before V. S. Yadav (P. W. 6), Additional District Magistrate (Judicial), Shivpuri, with a muzzle-loading gun in his hand. He made a statement before him that it was he who had fired at the deceased Debilal. The Additional District Magistrate (J.) then called the local Station House Officer and, after making a note of what the accused had stated before him in an order-sheet, handed over the accused to the police. The accused was alleged to have left his shoes at the place of the incident The gun produced by the accused before the A. D. M. (J.), Shivpuri, was borrowed by the accused from Badri (P. W. 8) on the representation that it was required by him for Shikar. (D) On the information (Ex. P-1) lodged by Pancha (P. W. 1) an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was registered. The accused who was arrested at Shivpuri was sent to Police Station, Tenduwa and arrested in the case registered at that Police Station. After investigation the accused was put up for trial and tried for the offence of murder of deceased Devilal in the aforesaid circumstances. In the trial Court the accused denied his guilt and alleged that he was forcibly taken to the Police Station and then to the Court of A. D. M. (J.), Shivpuri, where he was asked to make certain incriminating statement though he was not at all responsible for causing the death of the deceased. The learned trial Judge relying upon the oral evidence of the prosecution witnesses and some documentary evidence came to the conclusion that the accused alone was responsible for causing the death of the deceased. Accordingly, the accused was convicted and sentenced as aforesaid.