LAXMAN Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted by the II Addl. Sessions Judge, Bhopal vide judgment dated 26-11-88 for offence punishable under Section 302, IPC and sentenced to R.I. for life. He has been found guilty of committing murder of Roopsingh about 2 days before 12-7-87.

(2.) The prosecution case against the appellant rests on circumstantial evidence only. The story is that on 8-7-87 the deceased and his wife went to Bhopal. They came across this accused in Bhopal. The deceased and accused took liquor there and in discussion amongst them it was decided that the deceased should purchase a buffalo. For this purchase they sold the silver ornaments (Kadis) of the wife of the deceased i.e. Sonabai for Rs. 3800/- to Chandramohan (PW 7). Since it became late for transport to the village of the deceased, three of them stayed at the house of the accused. Next morning the deceased and his wife came to village Chopra. However it was decided between the deceased and the accused that the deceased would return to Bhopal. The money has been left with the accused who kept it with Bhanvarlal (PW 5). Thus the deceased in the afternoon started from village Chopra for Bhopal. He told his wife that he was going to the accused. Thereafter, the deceased was seen dead in the area of village Choprakala on 12-7-87. The body, inside the well, was detected because his Chappals and some articles were found outside the well by PW 3 Amarsingh, the father of the deceased. When the dead body was taken out it was having some injuries on the head and on the back of the body and also strangulation of the neck with a piece of the elastic which appeared to be torn off from some underwear. The police was intimated and the body was sent for post mortem examination which was conducted by PW 9 Dr. R. K. Singh on 13-7-87 who opined that the death occurred due to asphyxia due to strangulation. There were ligature marks on the neck corresponding to the piece of the elastic. So that was the ligature with which the deceased appeared to be strangulated by somebody. It may also be noticed here that on the day when the accused and deceased sold the ornaments of Sonabai, a photograph at the shop of the photographer was taken in which only the accused and Sonabai appeared. Since suspicion was towards this accused, the police investigation revealed, on arrest of this accused, that he was in possession of the underwear from which the elastic found on the neck of the deceased had been torn off. The accused made the disclosure to the investigating officer on 22-7-87 and got the recovery made from the room of a building, known as Laxminarayan Hotel, where the accused was residing and which was a building under construction. The accused is a labourer. It was also the prosecution case that the accused disclosed about a black thread worn by the deceased and half bottle of liquor having being concealed in bushes near the place of incident and he got them recovered. Armed with this evidence the accused was sent for trial.

(3.) The prosecution has relied upon only the circumstantial evidence against the appellant and the Court found it established that the circumstances proved on record established a chain of events which proved the guilt of the accused beyond doubt. These circumstances which have been found established may be enumerated as under :- (i) The accused and deceased and the wife of the deceased met the accused on 8-7-87 at Bhopal, they sold some ornaments (Kadis) of wife of the deceased for Rs. 3800/- with PW 7 and the money was kept by the accused who gave it to PW 5 later on. (ii) The accused, deceased and wife of the deceased stayed at the house of accused at Bhopal on 8-7-88, (iii) The accused and wife of the deceased had a joint photograph at Bhopal on 8-7-87 and it suggested immoral connections between them, (iv) the deceased and his wife returned to their house on 9-7-87 and the deceased had to meet the accused at 5 p.m. on that very day at Bhopal, (v) the deceased went from his house telling his wife that he was going to meet this accused at Bhopal, (vi) The accused did not return to his house and thereafter his body was found dead in a well in the area of his own village with a head injury and there was a ligature mark on his neck. The death was due to asphyxia resulting from strangulation. The other injuries on the back of the body were post-mortem while the head injury was ante mortem and the strangulation mark was ante mortem. The body was found on 12-7-87. (vii) Some clothes of the deceased were lying outside the well, (viii) The ligature was an elastic torn from an underwear and it was still on the neck of the deceased when the body was taken out from the well. The doctor has given definite opinion that the strangulation was with this ligature and it has created ciliated contusions all around the neck, (ix) The accused made a disclosure on 22-7-87 about his underwear in his room where the accused was residing. He also disclosed about a thread of the deceased. (x) The accused led to recovery of his underwear from his room and it was found that the elastic of the underwear had been torn off, (xi) The opinion of the expert of F.S.L. is that the elastic with cloth sticking to it found on the neck of the deceased as ligature mark, in fact was torn away from the underwear produced by the accused. (xii) The accused had disclosed about some thread worn by the deceased and concealed it in some bushes and also disclosed a liquor bottle and bidi stubs were lying on the spot, these were recovered, resultantly. (xiii) The trial Court found these circumstances established beyond doubt and took an inference that this accused strangulated the deceased with the elastic of his underwear and had thrown the body in the well. The strangulation must have been done after causing head injury. The motive was inclination of the accused towards the wife of the deceased and also the money which was consideration of the sale of the ornaments.